Until it Kills Me
by RoxiannaBaby
Summary: No one could have guessed that such intelligent children could manage to get themselves involved with something so stupid and dangerous. This tale recounts the thrills and adventures of Vincent and Amelia Elric. Some things really do run in the family- because with a name like Elric, nothing is ever easy. RATING UPDATED TO T
1. Chapter 1

**AN: New story, and I am soooooo excited, guys. I'm gonna level with ya'll - I may only be uploading this because I'm drunk, and intoxication makes me brave. This story is not deep or meaningful. I'd argue that it's actually incredibly cliche. It is, however, a plot bunny that I've had for yeeeears. And I have sooo much of it already written. It's just not something that I'd expect other people to be particularly interested in reading. But drunk me says "Fuck it! Let them eat cake, I mean, read fanfiction!**

**So you'll have to let me know what you think, and let me know if you want me to keep going. Cheerio, my amigos. Enjoy the tale. Be kind and review!**

* * *

CHAPTER 1

"Hey Vince, can you keep a secret?"

An annoyed look smeared itself across the boy's face. It was an uncomfortably humid fall day, and the chill of the morning air made him tug his jacket closer to his skin. He glanced warily at his younger sister. He loved her, sure, but a question like that was never a good sign- especially not when it came from the mouth of an Elric.

He pursed his lips and kicked up some dust off of the gravel road they were following. "Depends," he muttered noncommittally.

"Depends? On what?"

"On what the secret is, stupid."

Amelia's lips curled into a pout, and she crossed her arms with an angry huff. The frustrated silence continued as the two trekked towards Resembool's tiny schoolhouse. He'd hoped that the nine year old would let the matter go or get distracted while they walked, but luck was not on his side. Ten minutes passed and she was still huffing angry sighs while they walked. With a sidelong glance at his sister's still angry face, Vincent groaned reluctantly. "Fiiiiiine, I'll keep your secret, but I'd better not get in trouble for it. What did you do this time?"

The indignation remained on the girl's face as she rolled her golden eyes. "I didn't do anything! Not yet, anyways. And why do you have to go and make it sound like it's gonna be a bad thing! You're the one who's always getting in trouble!"

"Nuh-uh!" the eleven year old boy cried. "You dropped mom's favorite dish two days ago! It's not my fault I was the one who got in trouble. She just thought it was me!"

"That's because it was you! I didn't drop it! If you'd have just let me bake alone, then it never would have happened!"

"You can't make a cake by yourself, stupid! You'd burn yourself or something! I have to-" the boy's comment died on his tongue when he noticed the cart that was passing them to the left, or rather, the smirks on the faces of the elderly couple driving it. The siblings hadn't even realized that they'd stopped in the middle of the road to bicker. Grabbing his sister by the hand, Vince took off down the road in a light jog. "Hurry up! People are staring and we're going to be late to class."

Amelia's hand popped out of her brother's grip and she barked, "That's what I've been trying to tell you, idiot! I don't have to go to class anymore!"

The boy slid to a stop, sending dust flying beneath his feet. "What?"

"Yeah!" A grin stretched across her tiny face. "Teacher says that, so long as I do all of the homework and get perfect scores on all of my tests, I don't have to sit in on class anymore."

"Why would she let you do that?"

"Cause I asked her if it was okay."

"But why?"

Amelia pushed the sweeping wave of golden hair out of her face and bounced excitedly. "Cause it's boring and I finished all of the books at home and at school so I don't have anything to do there anymore."

Vincent gapped at the girl. "You finished all of the books? All of them? And I still can't believe that your teacher is okay with you just skipping class."

"I mean, I finished all the ones that Dad will let me read. And it's not like she's just letting me skip, you know," his sister replied, wagging her tiny finger at him knowingly. "I'm taking the train to Angren so I can study from their library up there. It might not be much bigger than the one we have here, but it's better than nothing."

Vincent sighed and began walking towards the school again. He couldn't afford to be late to class again. He wasn't as lucky as Amelia- for some reason, every teacher he'd ever had seemed to hate him. It's not his fault they were all morons, and he shouldn't be punished for letting them know it. No, he couldn't get away with the sort of things his sister could, never in a million years.

Trailing behind her brother, Amelia's breath hitched when she squeaked out a nervous, "So you will keep this a secret?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'd better not get yelled at for it, though. Why can't you just tell Mom and Dad? I doubt that they'd be upset that you're reading a lot." The boy chuckled dryly. "Actually, Dad would probably be thrilled." Their father worked as a scholar for a living- a well renowned one at that. Fuhrer Grumman frequently called upon him to travel to Central and advise his council.

Amelia bit her lip. "Because, they wouldn't like me taking the train alone. And sure, Dad would probably love to spend the day in a library with me, but then I can't read whatever I want. He'd say that 'This book is too complicated' or 'That book is too adult' or 'You can't read that, it's too scary' or whatever."

Vincent rubbed his eyes and shrugged. She wasn't wrong about that- if Edward Elric was known for one thing besides his intelligence, then it was his protective nature. "Alright, sure, I won't tell, but if you get caught, then I'm just gonna pretend I didn't know in the first place."

The girl squealed in excitement and wrapped her brother in a tight hug. He groaned and tried to push her away, but couldn't quite hide the smile that was forming. In the distance, the school bell rang for the first time, and the boy cursed under his breath- a bad habit that he'd acquired from his father. If his mother heard him, she'd beat him over the head.

With one final shove, the boy grumbled, "Let me go, or I'm going to be late for school."

His sister released him, and took off running in the other direction. "And I have a train to catch!" Her hair bounced like liquid gold and she ran off in the direction of the rising sun, her pale red dress fluttering in the breeze. Vince frowned, feeling a slight pang of jealousy at his sister's freedom, before turning to glare at the dull, six room schoolhouse. He pouted and kicked at a clump of grass, until the warning bell chimed for the second time. Cursing again, the boy glanced one final time towards the freedom of the open fields, before trudging towards the doom of schoolhouse boredom.

If he had known the trouble that was to come, Vincent would have never envied his sister's departure. He'd have stopped her, or warned their parents, done something, anything.

But he hadn't known.

And so, with ignorance and bliss, their adventure began.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 is here for you, you luck sons-of-bitches. I know this story it's slow to the start, but I swear, it gets good. Just stick with me. Chapter 5 is where is starts to pick up. But the intro is necessary. So suck it up and keep going! And let me know what you think! Review!**

CHAPTER 2

She stared excitedly outside her window while the train finished the half-hour journey north, to Angren. In five more minutes, Amelia would be free to roam the city and, more importantly, the library.

The train screeched to a stop and the girl leapt out of her seat, cheerily calling a farewell to the conductor as she exited the train. The man smiled after her and shook his head with a soft laugh.

Although Amelia had never been to Angren before, her teacher had told her that the library was in the direct center of town, so she headed inwards, towards the masses of people. The town was at full bustle, with hurried mothers dragging their children out on errands, women selling textiles, and men selling wares of cheese, milk, butter and other various dairy products at market. With wide eyes, Amelia continued to run through the busy streets.

In her excitement and hurry, she'd almost missed it. But the child had been trained to be prepared and perceptive since the day she was born, so when the vendor's cart tipped over, she came sliding to a stop. Adeptly pulling herself up on top of the nearest building's wall, Amelia watched from the rooftop as the man who'd crashed into the cart slowly lifted himself up off the ground.

"Ohhhhh no," the little girl murmured at the sight of the cart. It was in at least three pieces, with splintered wood and a bent metal frame. And its owner looked absolutely furious. Anxious, the child began rattling through ideas to help prevent a fight. If she got down there in time, perhaps she could help collect the spilled wares. Most adults were wary to start an argument in the presence of a child. It was something she had used to her advantage many times. It was a bad habit of hers, the way she managed to stick her nose into everyone else's business, even if she was only trying to help.

With her mind made up, Amelia stood and lightly pattered across the tin roof she was resting on. As she was about to jump down, the vendor's expression changed, and the girl stilled herself. Curious, the girl sat back down and watch as the two men held on a conversation. She contemplated moving closer, in order to hear what was being said, but they stopped talking before they even had time to stand. Soon, the man who'd broken the cart was kneeling, tracing circles on the pavement with chalk. Amelia watched in awe. What in the world was he doing? Circles compiled inside of circles, and soon the man had a complex diagram prepared. Then, with a slow breath, the man closed his eyes and pressed his hands upon the ground. Amelia's jaw dropped in shock as a bright light flashed, and suddenly the cart was repaired. The man and the vendor shook hands and then they each continued on their own way.

Amelia ran to the edge of the roof and launched herself off, somersaulting once she hit the ground, in order to soften her landing. Then, she sprinted swiftly after the man who had fixed the cart and grabbed him by the sleeve.

He turned to her, clearly shocked, before shaking her off of his cloak. "Damn it, girl, what do you think you are doing?"

"How did you do that?" she sputtered.

The man shoved her off and tried to continue on his way. "I don't have time for this, child. Go away."

"Please, what was that you did?" Amelia was practically begging as she ran after him.

The man raised an eyebrow and glared, but did not slow his pace. "What, have you never heard of alchemy before? Little weirdo, to have grown up in Amestris and never heard of alchemy."

Her footsteps stuttered to a stop. "Alchemy…," she whispered softly under her breathe. She had a name for it. "Thank you!" she shouted at the retreating form of the man, before heading off in the direction she'd been heading in before. Fueled with the excitement of her new discovery, she sprinted the rest of the way to the Angren library.

The library was a two story tall brick castle, with large granite steps leading up to the bolted wooden doors. Any other day, Amelia would have stopped and wondered at such a sight, but not right now. It wasn't often that the girl came in contact with a concept she had never heard of before, and it was even less frequent that it was something as wonderful and magical as this. She ran the steps two at a time before pushing open the heavy doors and making her way inside.

The first thing she did was run straight to the librarian's desk. Sure, she knew well enough how to check cards for catalog numbers, but in a building she was completely unfamiliar with, it was far simpler to just ask to be pointed in the right direction.

The women behind the desk was grey with age, and looked particularly friendly. Grinning, Amelia reached her arms up to the top of the desk and pulled herself up, so that she was eye level with the women. The librarian smiled in response. "Is there something I can help you with, dear?"

"Do you have any books on alchemy?" It was hard to keep her voice down, she was so excited.

The elderly women frowned slightly. "We do, yes, but they're mostly reference books. I think these texts might be a little overwhelming for someone of your age."

"Where are they at?"

The nurse smiled and shook her head softly. "They're on the second floor, in the second room from the left." Might as well let the child have fun looking at the circles. No harm in letting her try to learn.

Amelia nodded her thanks and took off towards the stairs. The librarian stared after her, pleased that the youth of today was willing to learn.

Then, the librarian buried herself in her work, returning books to their shelves, placing newly cataloged articles into their proper filing cabinets, and applying for donations from the state, to help fund their growing research department. Soon, hours had passed and the sun was beginning to set. There were only a few items left. Hurrying up the stairs, the librarian opened the door to the alchemy research room, and was shocked at the sight before her.

The girl was still there. A pile of six or seven books laid on the floor around the table where she had set up base, and two additional texts were lying open before her. The girl herself was lying on top of a table, her dress tucked underneath her and her hair haphazardly piled backward on top of her head. She was reading from one book, placed directly in front of her nose, and the other book she was using to occasionally reference from, flipping from page to page. The librarian recognized it as a dictionary of alchemic terms.

"Excuse me, child?" the elder spoke softly. No response. "Child? Are you listening?" Still, she made no notion of acknowledging the librarian. "Little girl, hello?" Approaching the girl, the women gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Child?"

The reaction was instant. The girl rolled over and whipped a knife from her left stocking, pressing it firmly into the women's neck. Shocked silence followed as the two stared each other down, young gold eyes peering into worn brown ones. Then suddenly, Amelia jumped back, removing the knife and placing it back into her stockings.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so so so very sorry!" she cried, climbing swiftly off of the table. The women released a shaky breathe as she slowly lowered herself into one of the chairs nearby. "I'm so so sorry. I'm really very sorry."

The women looked at her tiredly, and then rubbed her eyes with a soft laugh. "It's time to go, girl. The library is closing soon."

Amelia stood with her mouth agape. "What?!" she shrieked? "No no no this can't be happening! I'm late! Oh, they're gonna kill me!" The girl began to scurry around the room, and climbed the shelves with books in her arms, in order to put everything back in place.

The women signed softly and shook her head again. "Leave them," she said with a quiet smile. "I can put them away for you. You should hurry home, before it gets too dark."

Amelia turned to her, a grateful grin stretching across her face. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" She ran towards the door, forcing it open with a hardy shove. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she called back as the door swung shut.

The librarian shook her head, but then let loose a laugh.

What an interesting child.

**Not bad, right? Review and tell me what you think, please!**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Edward stood in the door frame of his kitchen, smirking confidently at the back of his wife's head. For Winry's part, it was almost impressive how well she had avoided turning around and looking at him, considering how she could practically feel the arrogance rolling off of him in waves. But she knew that if she did turn around, she'd be sure to smack him over the head with her wrench, and the children were bound to be home soon. She didn't want them exposed to that violence.

"So you're not gonna say anything? Does that mean I win?" Ed was picking a fight, and Winry could feel her blood boil. No, calm, she needed to stay calm. "Then I guess I'm just going to leave my dirty clothes all over the floor from now on out. Perfect." She could hear the grin in his tone.

"Edward Elric, you will do no such thing!" She spun around and watched as his smirk grew. She was going to kill him. "What, is this funny for you?! You're a pig! Clean up after yourself!"

Outside, Vincent walked the gravel path up to the door of his home, shuffling along slowly. He'd been hoping Amelia would be back by now, so he wouldn't have to come up with a reason why they weren't together, but he had yet to run into her. Whatever, he'd think of something. Climbing up the porch of his home, he swung open the front door. Much to his shock, his father sprinted past him, out the door, and was quickly followed by his mother, a wrench gripped firmly in her right hand. Vince ran his hand though his gold hair and watched them circle the house once before rolling his blue eyes and heading inside. It's not like this was the first time this had happened.

Vince headed straight to the kitchen and checked on the casserole in the oven that his mother had been making. Seeing that it was finished, he shut the oven door and turned the heat off. His mom was a fantastic cook, but right now she was preoccupied, and he didn't exactly want dinner to burn. He sat down at the kitchen table and waited for the show to come to him.

5 minutes later, Winry burst into the house and quickly rushed over to the stove, frantically muttering something about ruining dinner.

"I turned the stove off, Mom. It's fine."

Winry sighed and collapsed into the chair across from her son. "Thank goodness at least one man in this house isn't completely useless," she told him with a grin.

"I heard that," Ed shouted as he walked into the room, a smile on his tired face. He looked around and then asked Vince, "Where's your sister?"

Vince shrugged nonchalantly. "She said something about visiting a friend for a while. She asked me to tell you guys that she'd be home later tonight."

"Will she be home for dinner?" Winry asked as she stood again, and turned the oven back on, though she set it to a much lower heat. She still had the rest of the meal to prepare, but she didn't want to let the casserole get cold.

"She didn't say."

"Did she say where she was going?" Ed asked, his voice just as nonchalant as his son's.

Vince cringed internally, though outside he stayed calm. His father was on to them, he could hear it in his voice. He sounded too composed. "No, she didn't."

"Is it some boy?" Ed asked, his voice dangerously calm. "Because I'll kill him, you know."

"Daaaaad," Vince muttered, annoyance in his voice but relief in his mind. Dad didn't know. "She's nine. You really don't need to worry about that."

Ed raised his eyebrow. "That's for me to decide. I'll worry about her all I want."

This urged a laugh out of Vincent, but he just shook his head and went off to his room. Once there, he set to work tinkering with a tiny metallic dog, trying to compute the correct resistor he'd need to ensure that the voltage from the wall wouldn't short circuit the board within the toy. He hadn't decided what he wanted to do with the little robot yet, but he was considering giving it to his mother for her birthday, which was coming up soon. She liked mechanics, after all. Time flew past as he worked, and soon it was time for dinner. The family ate and talked joyously around the kitchen table, with their boisterous voices carrying throughout the house. Once dinner had finished, Vince headed back to his room while his mother went to work in her shop and his father went to his study to read. With a glance out of his bedroom window, Vincent watched as the sun began to set and worried, because his sister was not yet home.

But just as he was considering telling his parents where she had gone, he heard the front door swing open. Sticking his head out into the hallway, Vince watched as his sister stepped inside the house and closed the door behind herself. He sighed with relief, though he'd never admit that he had been concerned if asked.

"What took you so long?" he called out, and couldn't fight a smirk when she jumped.

She spun around and stuck her tongue out at him. "I just got distracted, that's all. Do you know where dad is?"

"In his study, like he is every night, duh." Vince watched as his sister scooped some cold casserole from the fridge onto a plate. Grabbing a fork off the counter, she quickly shoveled in a mouthful.

Amelia flinched a little at how strange the casserole tasted cold, but ate it regardless. Carrying the plate full of food off to her father's study, she popped the door open with her hip and walked inside. She set her plate down at the table her father was at, causing him to look up for a moment and grin. "Did you have fun at your friend's house?" he asked her as she grabbed one of her favorite books off of the shelves.

"Yup, it was awesome," she said with a smile. Vince must have covered for her- she was glad she'd decided to let him know what she was up to.

Her father smiled when she pulled herself up into the chair across from him and flipped the book open to a random page. "Aren't you tired of reading that thing over and over again? It's not even a story book."

Amelia shrugged. It was a medical text, one of the most mature books in the house that she'd been permitted to read. She couldn't help that she'd read multiple time- it was fascinating.

But that's not what she had come in here for. After swallowing down another bite of casserole, she looked up from the book and hesitantly said, "Hey Dad?"

Ed looked up briefly from his own research. "Huh? Uh, yeah, what is it, sweetheart?"

"What do you know about alchemy?" Ed's head shot up, and she knew that she had his full attention now.

"Alchemy? How did you hear about that?" Worry flit across his face. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't a worried expression. It was almost fearful, but not quite. Distasteful, perhaps?

Regardless, it wasn't a happy emotion. She knew she needed to lie. "I heard two boys talking about it at school. They were older than me, older than Vince even, I think. I was just wondering what it was." That wasn't entirely true- she'd spent the entire day researching it in Angren, so she had an idea as to what it was. But she doubted that was something her dad would want to hear.

Her father frowned. "Honestly, this is a conversation I was planning to have with you and your brother when you were both older. Well, you see, alchemy is a science, and a powerful one at that." Amelia raised her eyebrows, pleasantly surprised. She hadn't been expecting her father to tell her much of anything. "You see, Mia, it can be used to do great things. Alchemy can save lives and build magnificent wonders. It can be a gift. But," Ed's face grew solemn and Amelia's breathe caught, "alchemy is just as much a gift as it is a curse. For all of the lives saved by alchemy, ten times as many have been lost."

Amelia gasped softly. "But….how?" The library had explained the science, not so much the uses. She hadn't study far enough yet to really grasp at the practical usages. She was still only learning how to properly balance the reactions.

Ed smiled fondly at her. "You see, alchemy is the art of taking one substance, realigning the elements within it, and recreating a different product. In order to create, something must be lost. A transmutation circle is drawn, the materials are placed within it, and then the reaction is completed, using the exact amount of supplies given to recreate a new product in return. This policy of give-and-take is called Equivalent Exchange." Amelia nodded her head, enthralled. It was a concept she understood already- it was one of the first things the texts in Angren had taught her. However, it was thrilling to hear it from another person, spoken out-loud. "But, alchemy has no morals, dear. It may have laws, but it does not have ethics. It is only controlled by the moralities of its users. And saving lives is difficult to learn, whereas taking them is easy. Anyone can learn the alchemy it takes to decompose a series of veins within the body. Reconstructing them, however, takes years and years of study." Ed looked at his daughter, and released a shaky breath. "Amelia, I know this seems very exciting, but I don't want you getting involved in this any further, you hear me? If the equation is improperly balanced or the transmutation circle is improperly constructed, the reaction can rebound and hurt the alchemist who is using it. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Amelia nodded her head. "Yes Daddy, I understand. I was just wondering." She understood completely. But just because she understood that her father didn't want her to do any research didn't mean that she was agreeing not to. It just meant that she understood.

Ed sighed and smiled. "Good. Now, let's not talk about this. It's no fun, especially for someone your age. Wouldn't you rather I tell you a bedtime story instead?"

Amelia grinned happily. She was far too old to believe that any of the stories her father told her were true, but they were cute and entertaining. So, once she had curled up in bed, she listened eagerly to his story about the talking suit of armor that let a lost kitten live inside of him while it was raining. And with this funny little tale, Amelia drifted off to sleep.

Once his daughter was asleep, Ed went back to his study and tried to finish his research, but his mind just wouldn't focus. After a couple of fruitless hours of work, Ed crawled into bed and wrapped an arm around his wife, who had just climbed into bed a few moments before him.

Winry rolled over and smiled at her husband. "So what's wrong with you?" she murmured quietly into his neck, and Ed smiled softly.

"Mia asked me about alchemy today."

"Is that so?" His wife sounded disinterested. "What'd you tell her?"

"As little as I could without lying to her," Ed said with a smile.

Winry nodded against him. "Are you sure that's a good idea? She's smart, Ed. If she doesn't find out about it from you, then she'll find out another way."

Ed raised an eyebrow at the thought, but huffed it away. "Nah, I have all the alchemic books in the house locked up in my personal research vault. And there's none available here in Resembool. I'll tell her when she's older, Win, but not right now. Let her keep her childhood. She doesn't need to know everything."

Winry nodded once again, and soon the two of them had fallen asleep.

**So I have a question for you guys- what do you want to see from this story? I already have a ton of it written, and a giant chunk planned afterwards, but the problem is I don't know what I want to do after that. Like, I've already written Chapter 9, and I know what I'm going to do for at least 10, maybe even 15 chapters after that. But once that's finished, I have nooooo clue.**

**Tell me what you think. Tell me what you want to see.**

**Reviews make me happy! Thank you!**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: What's this? Two chapters posted, less than 24 hours apart? You guys must love me. I'm too good to you.**

**Unfortunately, I probably won't be posting again until Friday, at the earliest. I've got a busy week ahead of me, so I won't be able to write anymore chapters, and if I don't add to the stock pile I have saved up, then I don't post from it either, unless its an emergency. Sorry.**

**Good news is that we're almost to the exciting part!**

**Enjoy. :)**

* * *

CHAPTER 4

"Wake up! Dad's gonna kill you if he finds out that you're trying to skip practice two days in a row."

Vincent groaned and shoved his sister away from his bed. Sparing was pointless. It's not like any of the other kids in town had been training to fight since the day they could walk. But nooooo, Vince just had to be born into the most extreme family on the face of the Earth. He felt exhausted.

Amelia, on the other hand, never seemed to tire. For the past four years, ever since she'd first starting skipping class in favor of her research in the library, she'd been waking up at ungodly hours so she could read whichever alchemic texts that she'd brought home with her before it was time for her morning sparing match against her brother.

She'd accomplished a lot in four years. She was only thirteen years old, but she'd nearly finished every book in the alchemy and medicinal research halls of the Angren library. It was an issue that she'd been contemplating for a while- she'd need to move her research to a larger town soon, but nowhere was close enough to grant her daily access. She still did not want her parent to discover her research, but she felt as though she was running out of options. Regardless, she still had at least a week to think of something- she wasn't out of books quite yet.

Just the thought of his sister's studies made Vince want to crawl even farther into his bed- now he really didn't want to get up. She put too much work into something as stupid as alchemy. Vince, however, would only dedicate his time and energy to practical skills. Like last night- he'd spent six hours tweaking a diagram that Amelia had drawn up for a new wiring system for the nervous system in an automail arm. He'd only gotten to bed at 3:00 AM, and the design still wasn't quite right. He couldn't tell Mia that her design had required so much reworking, though- it'd hurt her feelings. It was just that, while his sister was a genius when it came to medicine and alchemy, her practical skills were lacking. The only physical pieces she'd ever worked with were transmuted through her silly science nonsense. That's why alchemy was garbage. Vince could take a sheet of metal and a circuit board and actually create something, with his own two hands. He knew that making it with alchemy might be easier, and it wasn't as if Mia hadn't offered to teach him, but he just couldn't get over the feeling of pride he'd get every time one of his robotics worked. What pride was there to alchemy, when you could build your machines with your own sweat, blood and tears?

The fifteen year old boy groaned as his little sister shoved him again. "Get. Out. Of. Bed!" she cried, grabbing him by the shoulder and shaking him. With an angry huff, Vince grabbed her hand from off of his shoulder and yanked her to the side, sending her flying to the left. Then, with an eccentric heave, he lifted himself up and flipped over, out of bed. His sister, not one to be easily caught off guard, dived towards him with the intent of planting a firm punch under his rib cage. Vince dodged her easily, yawned sleepily, and then preceded to high-kick her in the thigh. Mia let loose an "oof" and Vince took this moment of distraction to climb out his bedroom window, landing on the soft grass a floor below.

The morning air caught him by surprise, chilly since the sun had only just begun to rise, and he was only wearing his sleep-pants. There was no way it was any later than 6:00 in the morning. He stretched his arms upward and arched his back until he heard it crack. Today was gonna be hell. Vince's eyes felt bleary until he was shocked awake by a firm blow to the back, sending him tumbling to the ground. He quickly rolled himself over in time to avoid another kick while he was caught on the ground, and then propelled himself at his attacking sister.

Irritation drove Vincent to fight harder than he normally would have. Mia was fully clothed, in a pair of flexible clothe pants and a loose fitting blue jacket, while he was freezing cold in just a pair of baggy pajama bottoms. How unjust. Plus he was exhausted, which only helped to darken his mood. He faked out a jab to the left before quickly punching to the right. Amelia had messed with the wrong kid this morning.

His sister frowned as she flipped backwards to avoid the blow. Vince sure was pissy today. But Vince was pissy every day. Mia countered his next punch and attempted a counter strike by kicking at his chest. She knew that if she gave him a good enough fight, he'd burn off most of his negative energy, and maybe give his teacher a little less hell. So she fought back with all her might.

Soon enough, Vince had Amelia pinned with both of her arms trapped behind her back, and they mutually agreed that the sparing match was over. Vince always won, but Amelia was the only one in Resembool that even stood a chance against him. After resting in the cool dewy grass and watching the sun rise for a few moments, the Elric kids headed inside for breakfast with their parents. Then, after showering and dressing for the day, the two headed off in the direction of the schoolhouse.

"So….," Vince muttered as they walked the gravel road. Mia looked up at him expectantly. "Well, I was wondering, you said that the Angren library had a lot of medical texts there, right?"

Mia nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, there's an entire room filled with books about the human body. Why, what's up?"

Vince shrugged. "Well, I was looking at that diagram you gave me last night, and I was wondering if maybe there was a way to optimize the sensations we could convey through the piece. But I had some medical questions that the books at home don't have any solutions for."

"And?" Mia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And," Vince said, scowling, "I was hoping I could go with you today, so I could research it and maybe figure it out."

Amelia shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it. Are you going to get in trouble at school?"

Vince barked out a laugh. "Fuck that, I don't care about what the school has to say. I'd probably just sleep through class if I did go today anyways."

"It's your funeral," Mia said with a shrug, and the two changed paths towards the train station.

After half an hour, the train screeched to a halt at the Angren station, and the two made their way to the library. Amelia grinned and shouted a pleasant hello to Margret, the grey-haired librarian who had quickly become her friend, before heading up the stairs. Vince waved at the elderly lady uncomfortably before following after his sister with a grumble.

Mia quickly pointed her brother in the direction of the medical research room before heading off to study alchemy by herself.

She quickly found herself absorbed in her studies, and hours passed before her brother knocked loudly on the open door, in an attempt to get his sister's attention. Mia's head shot up and her brother couldn't help but to laugh at her disheveled expression.

"You're a loser, Mia. Don't you ever stop reading?"

The girl stuck out her tongue. "What do you want, Vince? Or are you just here to bother me?"

"I'm hungry. It's way past lunch time, you idiot." Mia blinked in surprise. "What, do you not eat lunch while you're here?"

Mia shrugged, grimacing with slight embarrassment. Sometimes she'd bring a lunch with her, or buy something from a vendor if she had a couple coins to spare, but usually she'd work straight through and forget to eat.

Vince frowned. "What are you working on that's so important that you don't stop for lunch?"

Vincent wanted to know about her work? Really? That was a first. Regardless, a chance to explain her research left Mia bouncing with excitement, and she rummaged through a pile of notebooks before flipping it open to an incredibly intricate diagram. "Come here and I'll show you!" she called cheerfully.

Regret flooded though him- he wasn't going to be able to understand this. Vince could tell just by glancing at the page from across the room that he wouldn't have any idea what was going on. Still, he sat himself down at the table across from his sister and listened as she began to explain something about medicinal alchemy, and configuring the transmutation circle to affect the chemicals which aligned the platelets in the blood, but that there was a need to add resisting triangular loops to the diagram before something happened, or else it would cause another thing to happen, which would cause yet another weird thing to happen within the cardiovascular system, and that would cause a shock from a sensory overload. Then she said something about something else and as she added more detail, the more it sounded like complete gibberish to Vince.

The brother was lost on half of it. Was that supposed to mean something? What was she even trying to say? Terms like niter, aqua vitae, sol and succedaneum left Vincent's ears ringing, and the loops, lines and symbols within the transmutation circles compiled in his mind into nonsense.

When Mia paused to take a breath, Vince cut in with, "So what does it do?"

The excited gleam in his sister's eyes formed a dark glare. "What do you think I've been telling you?"

"Yeah, I get that's what you're trying to say, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You know how the human body works, moron! Better than me, I'd bet!" This was true- Vince had been studying medicine for years, in order to be more efficient when helping his mother build automail.

That didn't make him some sort of genius, though. "Sure, I understand all of the medical terms, you priss. It's the alchemy I don't get."

Annoyance slowly melted off of Amelia's face, and she leaned back in her chair with a pensive expression. Frowning lightly, she picked up a notebook and began flipping through it. Vince watched her wordlessly, slight distaste in his expression. Finally settling on a slightly less complex diagram, Mia left the page open and then pulled her knife from her stocking.

"Give me your hand," she said absent-mindedly to her brother, out stretching her hand towards him while continuing to examine her notes.

Vince eyed the knife and then returned his gaze to his sister's reaching arm. "Why?"

"I'm gonna cut it."

His eyes narrowed. "Somehow I'm not surprised. Why are you doing that?"

Mia looked up, annoyed once again. "Listen, do you want to see what this does or not?"

"Yeah, I do, but I don't want it to hurt."

"Oh, get over it, you big baby."

Vince glared. "Fuck you," he mumbled as he hesitantly presented Mia with his hand. She took it, held the palm open upward, and then slowly traced a thin line into his palm with her knife.

Vince inhaled sharply as a few droplets of blood began to form, but Amelia ignored him. She set the knife down, and then placed his hand, palm upward, on the transmutation circle in her open notebook. Then, she calmly pressed both hands to the circle.

A bright blue light blinded him, making Vince averted his eyes. It felt like there were ants crawling under the skin near the cut, and Vince couldn't help but clench his fist. The itching was unbearable.

However, the light ended just as soon as it began, and when Vince looked down at his hand, the cut was gone. There wasn't even a scar. It still itched, though. "Why does it feel all tingly like this?" he asked his sister, an eyebrow raised.

Mia shrugged. "Maybe the new skin that grows in isn't prepared for the sudden blood supply? Like if you accidentally fall asleep on your arm, it starts to tingle when you get off of it stop restricting the circulation and the blood flow is increased. I'm not sure, though. There aren't a lot of texts available on medicinal alchemy. Not here, at least. Most of my research is based on my own experimentation, and by combining anatomy texts with alchemy ones."

"Wait, you came up with that all by yourself?"

"Well, no, not entirely. The base work is commonly available knowledge. I just combined it in a certain way, that's all."

"Huh." Vince scratched his hand absently. The itching was starting to fade, but it was still weird to think about.

Mia rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you what- if you buy me lunch, I'll tell you more about it." This coerced a laugh out of Vince, and soon the two were off in the streets of Angren, looking for something to eat. They came across and quiet little shop, and enjoyed a surprisingly peaceful meal together. Time passed quicker than either of them expected, and they made the joint decision to just head home early, rather than walk all the way back to the library, study for an hour, and then leave again. So they both hopped the next train out of town, heading back south to Resembool.

* * *

**Come on guys. Review and let me know you're out there!**

**Also, does anyone have a good idea for Amelia's middle name? Its kind of a trivial matter, but I don't have one picked out and it bothers me. So if anyone has any thoughts on it, I'd love to hear them. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, I still haven't finished another chapter, but I promised you guys an update on Friday, so an update is what you're going to get. See- this is why I keep chapters stocked up!**

**Also, KonohaKame01 said her name is Mia too, so this chapter is dedicated to her. :P**

**WARNING: Vince has a potty mouth. Swearing below.**

**...Like the lack of a warning has fucking stopped me before...**

**Anyways...**

**Enjoy. It's the best chapter yet. )**

* * *

CHAPTER 5

The two Elric kids were met on the trail by their parents as they made their way back home.

"Mom? Dad? What are you guys doing here?" Amelia asked, trying to hide the shock from her face. They were nearly at their house, and had already passed the section of road that combined with the main trail that led away from the schoolhouse. There was no evidence to show that their parents knew that they hadn't attended class that morning, or in four years, as was Mia's case.

But Amelia's heart jumped to her throat when their mother raised an eyebrow and said, "We're going to the train station. Why are you here? School shouldn't be out for another half an hour."

Words escaped her as Amelia stood dumb-founded. Fortunately for her, Vincent was not as useless. In fact, he considered himself a talented conversationalist, and so it was effortless for him to grin and reply, "I got out early. My teacher said she had family business to attend to for the rest of the day. And Amelia's class was working on a report, so when I asked if she could leave with me, her teacher agreed under the condition that she finish the report by tomorrow and turn it in to him in the morning."

"Oh, well that was nice of them," Winry nodded, tapping her cheek thoughtfully.

"Why are you guys going to the train station?" Mia managed to stutter out, sounding considerably less casual than her brother.

Edward was usually fairly perceptive when it came to matters like this, but today his daughter's nervousness escaped him completely. His excitement blinded him to it. A gleeful grin stretching across his face, Ed answered, "Your Uncle Al and Aunt Mei are coming to visit from Xing. Their train is scheduled to arrive in about half an hour."

The two adults offered to let the children come and wait at the station with them, but the siblings declined, claiming that they were tired and hungry, and would be sure to see them back home within an hour anyways. The real reasoning behind why the two did not wish to go was that they did not want to return to the station and risk someone recognizing them from earlier and spilling their secret. But their parents were too excited to really question the kids' motives too deeply. Ed and Winry hurried on their way, so as to not be late for the train's arrival.

Ten minutes later, Mia and Vince had made it home, and when they entered the house, they collapsed into the chairs at their kitchen table. After releasing a weary sigh, Amelia looked up at her brother and slowly let out a shaky giggle. He raised an eyebrow at her, confused, and her laughter grew stronger. This coerced a smile from him, and once the girl had managed to contain herself, he questioned, "What?"

"I thought we were dead for a minute there! I thought they'd caught us!"

Vince rolled his eyes. "If Dad hadn't been so thrilled to get to see Uncle Al, they probably would have. You're terrible at keeping your head, Mia. It was super obvious that we were doing something we shouldn't have been."

"Not all of us are compulsive liars, you jerk," Mia snarked back, sticking out her tongue at him, as it was her go-to response to Vince's criticism. "I haven't had as much practice as you."

The two continued bickering as Mia made herself a sandwich. She was about to take a bite, but then noticed her brother eying it hungrily. Without pausing their argument, she handed it to him and began making another for herself. Vince took a bite of his sandwich, insulted Amelia's culinary skills ("It's a sandwich, Mia. How the hell did you manage to fuck this up?") and then continued to wolf the entire thing down. For her part, Amelia simply rolled her eyes and retorted ("If you weren't so incredibly lazy, you could have just made it yourself.") before finishing making her own sandwich.

The two continued to bicker good-naturedly until Amelia had finished her food. Then, they moved to head towards their respective rooms and work on their individual projects, but before either of them had made it out of the kitchen, they heard the front door swing open.

"Uncle Al! Aunt Mei!" Mia cried as she took off sprinting towards the front door.

Vince chuckled softly to himself, but the laughter strangled out of him and died as he heard his sister scream.

Sprinting towards her, Vince stopped cold once he reached the front door.

Before them stood a man, no older than twenty-five, with a badly damaged automail arm. His eyes were sunken in their sockets, and his breathing was ragged and shallow. The automail itself was bent nearly in half, and many of the wires were snapped and hanging loosely from the metal frame. Above the damaged metallic forearm, the remainder of the man's flesh arm was oozing blood.

Amelia was the first to react. The shock wore of in an instant, and she sprang into action. She spun around tightly on her heals and stared her brother straight in the eyes. "Take him to the shop and lie him down on the patient bed, now. We can't let him pass out here. I'm going to get some bandages and disinfectant, and I'll meet you out there as soon as possible."

"Shouldn't we call Mom?" Vince squeaked out as he took the man by his flesh arm.

Amelia shook her head as she exited the hallway, darting into the kitchen. "At what number? They're probably not at the train station anymore. Just take him to the shop, she'll be back soon. Keep him conscious."

With a determined gulp, Vince quickly shifted the man's uninjured arm over his shoulder and supported the majority of his weight, before dragging him to the garage.

Amelia was seconds behind him, supplies in hand and determination in her steps.

The older brother gently rested the injured man down on the patient cart. "Hey, are you awake? What happened?" The young man was unresponsive, but his eyes wandered slowly up to Vince's face. "Can you speak to me? What's your name?" No response. Vincent turned his attention to his sister. "What should we do?"

As she removed a clean rag from the disinfectant, Mia replied, "We need to stop the bleeding. It's the most detrimental issue to his health right now." The girl paced over to the injured man's other side and took a deep breathe. "Listen, sir. This is going to sting, but it's going to help you, I promise." When the man didn't reply, she pressed the cool clothe onto the cut, trying to clean off the wound and apply pressure at the same time. Apparently, the man hadn't been expecting the fiery pain that the disinfectant would cause, because his injured arm shot up and then convulsed back down, banging into the metal bedframe.

The damaged automail replied with a nauseating crunch and then sparked dangerously. The man cried out, and then began convulsing. Over the sound of the man's uncontrollably screams of pain, Vincent bellowed, "What's happening? What's wrong with him?!"

Mia shook her head. "I think the arm is sending too strong of an electric pulse through his nervous system. He's seizing."

"What?! Are you serious?! What do we do?!"

"You need to disconnect his wiring, Vince!" As her brother's eyes widened in shock, Mia cried out, "I don't know how to do it, and he might die otherwise. Vince, please!"

Feeling true fear for the first time in his life, Vincent bobbed his head in a tiny nod and quickly positioned himself on the closest stool in front of the man's arm. Although it wasn't ideal to forcefully hold down the seizing, screaming man, they didn't have many options, so Amelia used all of her body weight to pin the damaged arm still. Then, carefully, Vince donned the closest pair of work gloves and used a nearby tool set to peel open as much of the damaged plating as he could- some of it was warped in a way that made it impossible to remove. Then, with steady hands but a shaking heart, Vince donned his gloves and began his work.

The inside of the piece was a mess, but Vince kept his head and examined it as closely and calmly as he could. The red wire would be the one supplying the main voltage source, while the black wire was likely to be the one leading the circuit to ground. He wasn't sure, since the piece wasn't a Rockbell brand, but hopefully the engineer who had made it had stuck with the standard labeling system. He should be able to just disconnect the red wire, and cut the power, right? But what if there was a back-up supply? He tugged on a purple wire, which he thought connected to the piece's timing system, but decided not to cut it out just in case it was something different. There was too much going on within this arm. It was overwhelming trying to figure out what was happening, especially when he was under so much pressure, and he wasn't given a schematic.

Mia watched from above as her brother dug through snapped wires and malfunctioning machinery, her breath heavy in her throat. The man's screaming had not stopped, and by now his voice had grown ragged and sore.

Suddenly, the man cried out in an exceptionally pained roar, and gave an unexpected jerk, causing his whole body weight to thrash against the bed. Despite Mia's best efforts, his arm flew up, and a live wire found its way over the gloves and made contact with Vince's exposed wrist.

The older brother howled and lurched upward, stumbling backwards over the stool he was sitting on, and crash landed on the cement floor, his head bouncing on the ground with a sickening crack.

"Vincent!" Mia cried, dropping the man's twitching arm and rushing to her brother's side. "Vince! Vincent!" she screamed desperately into his ear, but her brother did not respond.

The seizing man's voice crackled and wheezed from over-use, but he continued to howl out in pain. "Vincent…" Mia moaned into her hands, tears slipping from her eyes. She wanted to help him, but was afraid to move him and cause him further damage. The stranger released another forceful howl of pain, and Amelia cried out with him, punching the concrete floor in frustration.

The shop's door burst open, and Amelia's bleary vision made out the form of her mother, disheveled and panting in the doorway.

"Mom…" Amelia managed to murmur brokenly though her tears.

Winry's hands began to shake, and she dashed to Vincent's side. "Vince? Vince?!" Her attention switched to Mia. "Amelia, what happened? What's wrong with Vincent?!"

A soft hand touched Winry's shoulder, and she looked up, shocked. Mei kneeled beside her sister-in-law and niece, and spoke in a soft, calm voice. "Winry, let me help Vincent. I can use alkahestry to heal him." Winry stared at her numbly. Mei continued. "Winry, that young man up there is suffering because his automail is failing, and I can't do anything to help him- only you can. But I can help Vince, if you'll let me. But I need you to move. Please, Win."

A determined spark glinted into Winry's eyes, and she wiped away unshed tears before taking Amelia into her arms and standing them both up, in order to move them out of Mei's way. Then, Winry demanded that Ed come and help her force down the pained man down, and began working on his malfunctioning arm. She recognized the make immediately and made short work of it, managing to have the whole piece disconnected in a matter of minutes. The man's ragged screaming faded to gasping pants.

At the same time, Mei had quickly sketched a circle into the concrete of the shop floor, laying out an intricate design with the occasional input from Al. When she finished, she positioned five kunai knives within the diagram. In any other circumstance, Mia would have been fascinated by the strange display of alchemy before her, but right now it took everything inside of her to keep from breaking into tears and crumbling on the shop floor. As it was, she was barely managing to keep her teary gasps from becoming a full blown wail. Crying silently, she watched her aunt and uncle try to heal her brother. She weakly sat down again, though she made sure to stay far enough away to give her aunt enough room to work.

Once the injured man was bandaged and the bleeding had slowed, Winry and Ed made their way over to where Mia was sitting on the ground. They sat beside her, and Winry took the girl into her arms and rocked her gently as the Xingese woman activated the transmutation circle.

The light gleamed bright and then faded. "There," Mei whispered shakily. "That's all I can do for him. The damaged should be completely healed."

Mei smiled at them tiredly, but it didn't reach her eyes. "It's all up to him now. All he needs to do now is wake up."

* * *

**Suspenseful, right? **

**Let me know what you think! Reviews make me happy! :)**

**Next update will probably be Monday or Tuesday. I'll do what I can. :P**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I promised you guys an update on Monday and guess what - it's 11:45 on Sunday! I'm 15 whole minutes too early. Enjoy!**

* * *

CHAPTER 6

The doctor had been called immediately, and he'd gladly made a house call to check on Vince's condition, but there wasn't anything new he could tell them. Mei had done an impeccable job- neither professional could tell what was wrong with the boy.

Eight days passed that way, and Amelia found it increasingly difficult to sleep. Some mornings, she'd wake up kneeling at the foot of her brother's bed, unable to remember how she'd gotten there, but sure that she must have wobbled her way there in her sleep. But that wasn't the worst way she'd found to spend her mornings. No, the worst days were the ones where she'd laid awake the entire night, guilt clawing her heart to ribbons. A sleepless night ensured a miserable morning.

The ninth night passed in just that fashion.

Exhaustion forced angry tears to leak from her eyes. But Amelia had not been raised to wallow in her misery. Forcing the tears to stop, the girl sat herself up in her bed, and glanced out her bedroom window at the moon. It was too dark to read her clock, but if she had to take a guess, it was probably about two in the morning. She'd stayed up this late before- she did it frequently, in fact. It was just that, she didn't typically do it for a week straight.

She climbed out of bed and grabbed a candle and an alchemy book she'd borrowed from the library. She lit the candle with a matchstick and tried to read, but the letters bounced off of her eyes. It was impossible to absorb any of it. It was like she wasn't even reading Amestrian, but rather some weird, foreign script. The words were all nonsense.

It was pointless to stay put and do nothing, then. She didn't have a plan for what she was going to do, but she knew she couldn't stay in her room. She felt trapped there, and it was driving her crazy. Though she hadn't intended it, once she swung her bedroom door open, she made her way to Vincent's bedroom.

She stopped short before turning the corner in the hallway, though, when she heard the adult's quietly whispering outside of her brother's room.

"Winry, you need to get some rest," Mei told her softly. "You can't sit awake all night, or you're going to make yourself ill."

It was Alphonse who spoke next, his voice a gentle whisper. "Go to bed for the night, Winry. I'll stay by his bedside, and I'll wake you up the instant there's any change, I promise."

These soft words feel on deaf ears. The mother did not respond to their request, but rather, she chanted quietly, "Why won't he wake up? I just want him to wake up. Why won't he wake up?"

"We don't know, Win." It was Mei who spoke. "His body should be fine, but, when I go to sense his chi, it feels like he's slipping away. His life energy is growing weaker."

If this answer had been a surprise to the adults, none of them made a sound to indicate it. Mia felt the tears pouring silently down her face, and felt a stab of betrayal that her parents had not told her. Her brother was dying.

"Is there nothing you can do, Mei?" The desperation in Ed's voice only affirmed Amelia's fears. "Anything at all, to help his chances?"

A quiet sob echoed down the hall, and Amelia knew her mother was crying too. Her aunt was hesitant to reply, but eventually Mei did say, "I'm sorry, Ed. You know as well as I do that, when one attempts transmutation on a human soul, the results are good for no one."

"Of course," Ed murmured meekly. He sounded broken. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I would never ask something like that from you."

"You meant no harm. No need to apologize." Mei's voice was kind, but soaked in misery.

Amelia didn't want to listen to this anymore. Her vision was too blurred from her tears for her to see straight, so she used her hand along the hallway wall to guide herself back to her bedroom. She collapsed into her bed and wept silently into her pillow.

She stayed there until the sun rose.

The crying had only lasted for the first hour, though. The rest of her time, she'd been lost in thought.

As she sun shined softly throughout her room, Mia slowly rolled out of bed and made her way over to her desk. Pulling her schoolbag out from under the chair, she quickly removed her research notebooks and set to work.

Mei had said that transmuting human souls had never worked well. But Mei used a weird, different form of alchemy. She called it "alkahestry", or some such nonsense. So, just because her Aunt's strange form of alchemy wasn't able to successfully transmute a human soul, it didn't mean that Amelia's pure, natural alchemy couldn't. There had to be a way.

However, Amelia was no fool. It wasn't like she didn't understand the risks. On top of it being highly illegal – this fact was the first, and in many cases, only, thing that some of her books mentioned about human transmutation- it was also incredibly dangerous. If the balancing of the equation went wrong, and rebounded on the user, the price was high. Some books contained stories of alchemists losing whole limbs or organs. More frequently, they would simply lose their lives.

But, just like her aunt, these alchemists were different from Amelia too. They were different, because Mia couldn't afford to fail like they had. Her brother's life was hanging in the balance.

She would be infallible. It wasn't that she wanted to be perfect. It was that she had to be.

Quickly sketching a tiny transmutation circle with chalk on her bedroom door, Amelia used alchemy to create a tiny lock within the handle, preventing the door from being opened from the outside. She didn't want to be disturbed.

Then, she set to work.

Over the course of seven hours, Amelia compiled everything she knew about alchemy and souls within three notebooks. It took another four hours for her to limit that information to various diagrams, pseudo-transmutation circles, not quite right but not quite wrong. She stored these within another, separate notebook.

As it rounded on towards twelve straight hours of work, Amelia's mind was no longer thinking. Her hands moved without command across the paper, etching the most intricate details with gentle precision.

Finally, she limited all of the information she needed within a single, delicately intricate circle. Once her pen lifted from the paper, a weak, "Finished," wisped past her lips, and she finally granted herself permission to stop. With her will power gone and her motivational task completed, the 48 hours of sleeplessness caught up to her, and she collapsed on her bedroom floor, sound asleep.

It was pitch black when she awoke again.

Mia shot up straight, confused about her surroundings, until she realized that she was simply on the floor in her room, instead of in her bed. She leaned back slowly, allowing her racing heart to calm itself, before pushing herself up and relighting her candle from earlier. She looked over the final design one last time and nodded to herself. Then she swallowed hard. The transmutation circle was flawless. She hoped.

But she wasn't turning back now, and Vince didn't have time to spare. Mia grabbed the paper, her pen, and a needle from her sewing kit before unlocking her door and heading silently out into the hallway. The lights were off, so she used her free hand to guide herself to her brother's room.

She darted inside in complete silence, surprised to see that no one was at her brother's bedside. Aunt Mei must have succeeded in persuading her mother away to bed, and if she hadn't, then her dad was surely to blame. Ed was probably the only person in the world who could work though Winry's stubbornness.

Regardless, Mia was eternally grateful for the opportunity to be alone with her brother. This task would take her full concentration, and she didn't want to be distracted. Plus, she doubted her family would support what she was about to do.

Taking a small piece of chalk from her pocket, Amelia traced the same locking circle that she'd used on her bedroom door onto her brother's, and ensured that she would not be interrupted. Then, she lit her brother's candle and got to work.

The pen crunched loudly as Mia snapped it in two, which caused the young alchemist to jump slightly. Exhaling her jitters away, the girl removed the blankets from her brother's leg and rolled up his pant from around his left ankle. Then, she dipped the sewing needle into the broken pen, coating it with exposed pen ink, and began tattooing the transmutation circle onto her brother's ankle.

It wasn't the ideal way to do it. But her supplies were limited and a tattoo was the only way she could think of keeping the circle on her brother forever. She needed this circle to be permanent- who knew what would happen if it faded away as Vince got older? Would he fall unconscious again? Or perhaps he'd just die. Either way, Amelia wouldn't take that risk.

The work was slow, since the needle was far from exact and the design was complex. It took five hours.

Once the transmutation circle was finalized, Amelia dropped the needle to the ground and released a shaky breath.

"You ready, Vince?"

He didn't answer, but she responded anyways. "Yeah, me neither."

Then, she inhaled sharply, squeezed her eyes closed tight, and pressed her two thumbs into the miniature circle on her brother's ankle. The light flashed bright enough to whiten her vision, even though her eyes remained shut.

And then the light faded. When Mia opened her eyes again, she found herself in an entirely white room, occupied only by an entirely white child with an eerie grin stretching completely across its face.


	7. Chapter 7

**Two updates in a little more than 12 hours?! What is it, your birthday?**

**Nah. I just found a few extra hours today to write another chapter, so you guys get another update!**

**YAAAAAY!**

**But I'm going to be crazy busy this week, so I probably won't be updating again until Thursday or Friday.**

**But here's this, for now.**

* * *

CHAPTER 7

"Am I dead?"

The entity before her appeared to contemplate this for a moment, before replying with, "Do you feel dead?"

"No?"

"Then you aren't." Mia forced herself to inhale heavily, trying to calm her nerves. The white child continued speaking, its tone lofty and disinterested. Amusement was evident in its voice. "Life and death are relative terms. One's death can create notoriety to last for generations to come, but one's life can be a waking death, full of unending agony and loneliness. A man is said to live on through his children, and through his stories and accomplishments. But similarly, a man can die psychologically while his heart beats on. What is the determining factor on who is dead and who is not? Life is what you make of it."

"So…." Amelia frowned softly, "I actually am dead?"

The entity's grin disappeared from its face for a moment, and when its response came, it was harsher. "Listen, I'm not here to debate philosophy with you, girl."

"Why are you here? Who are you?"

"I am All. The Universe, the Unknown. The Truth."

Mia's frown deepened. "That sure sounds like I'm dead, then." A weary breath escaped her. She surprised herself with this- she didn't really feel sad, just tired. "Did I really mess up that bad? I thought my equation was flawless."

The Truth ignored her. "You're here for this, are you not?" In his hand, a gentle pulse of red energy suddenly appeared.

It was Vince's soul- or part of it, at least. She didn't know how she knew, but she could just tell. It felt like her brother. It felt like sarcasm and irritation and genius, squeezed tight into a shockingly tiny mass.

"Yes. Yes, that's it!" Mia moved towards it, but Truth floated upward, away from her.

"Not so fast. That's not how this works. You should know better than that." The amusement found its way back into the being's tone. "You alchemists are all the same. You know the rules but you try to break them anyways. Just ludicrous." He floated back down, now eye level with the girl. "I will not give until I receive."

"Uhhhh…" She was dumbstruck. "What do you want? What equates to a portion of a human soul?"

Truth glided upward, slowly rotating itself upside down. "Normally, the charge to attach a soul is heavy. A whole limb or an entire essential organ. A life, if I so deem it." Fully upside down, the entity crossed its legs and tilted its head to the side. Though it shouldn't have been possible, its smile stretched even wider. "But for you, things are different. This is not an entire soul, just the section that had already begun to fade. Plus," Truth flipped back over and landed gently beside the girl, "I owe your family a debt."

Mia opened her mouth to ask what debt this presence could possibly owe, but it did not allow her to speak, instead cutting her off with, "So I have an idea. How about we do this- an eye for an eye, eh?"

It reached out and gently pinched the space directly in front of the girl's left eye. Then, he yanked back softly, and tiny gold flakes began to peel away from her face. Mia watched in amazement as one of her gold eyes repositioned itself on the white being before her. Then, he casually tossed her the piece of soul, like it was nothing more significant than a baseball.

"You're exit is over there," the Truth called to her, and suddenly a giant looming gateway, covered in alchemic symbols, appeared to her left. Mia looked at it in astonishment, briefly taking the whole thing in, and then made her way towards it. As the gate swung open, Truth called after her, "Tell your father that my debt is paid!"

As the blinding whiteness of the other side swallowed her, Amelia shouted back, "I don't know what that means!"

And then the gate swung closed.

"You won't remember to tell him anyways" the Truth said with a shrug. "Doesn't matter, though." His grin grew larger. "You'll be back."

* * *

**As always, remember to review and follow. Let me know what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**What can I say, guys? I'm the queen of early updates.**

**Read, review, favorite and follow. You all know the drill.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

CHAPTER 8

Something was wrong.

Vince didn't know what. But deep in his gut, there was this sinking feeling that something just wasn't right. Stretching slowly, the boy weakly pulled himself up in bed and observed his surroundings.

He was completely alone in his room. It was too dark to read the clock, but the stars out his window told him that it was the middle of the night. Perhaps one or two in the morning.

And holy hell, did he have to go to the bathroom. Swinging his legs off of the bed, Vince was met with quite the surprise when they gave out on him and he collapsed on the floor. "What?" the boy questioned softly with a startled blink. His muscles ached, sore from the lack of use. Still, he needed to go, so Vincent grabbed the side of the bed and slowly worked his way up to a standing position, and using the walls in his room and in the hallway, he made his way to the bathroom.

He pushed the bathroom door open and was surprised to see Amelia there before him.

She was leaning hard against the mirror, cupping the left half of her face in her hand. The part of her face that wasn't concealed was streaked in dried tears.

She turned to him and stared, not moving her hand.

Then, she grabbed him in a hug and sobbed. "You're awake, you're awake, you're finally awake."

"Uh, yeah." He looked at the girl fearfully. But nature was persistent. "And I have to pee. Really bad."

"Right." Mia darted out of the bathroom and closed the door. Vince stared at where she'd been standing a few moments ago and then slowly shook his head. He needed answers. But he needed a toilet more.

Amelia exhaled heavily and pressed her back tiredly to the wall beside the bathroom door. Her knees gave way and she sank to the floor slowly, laughter starting to bubble up. He was awake!

After the transmutation, she'd tried everything to wake her brother up, but he would not budge. She'd thought that she had failed for sure, ensuring her brother's death. And when she'd started to cry, her left eye had begun to burn unbearably. By the light of the candle, she could see blood mixed with her tears. Fearful, she had quietly darted to the bathroom so she could examine the damage of her failure.

The iris and pupil in her left eye were gone, and in their place, instead of sparkling gold and deep black, all that remained was a hollow gray mass. The white of her eye remained mostly undamaged, but was bloodshot near the tear-ducts. When Mia had closed her right eye, she'd discovered that the other one, the grey one, was blind.

She had thought it was a rebound- that her transmutation had failed so severely that she had lost her eye. Certainly not the worst possible outcome, but…. she had been her brother's last chance. And she had failed.

But, now that she could see that she had not failed, she began to re-evaluate her lost eye. If this was not a rebound, then what was it?

Equivalent exchange? That didn't seem right. Was a soul really worth so little as an eye?

It didn't matter. She had her brother back.

The bathroom door swing open. "Alright. What's going on here?" Vince was frowning down at his sister, an irritated twitch on her face.

When his sister laughed again, Vince was sure he was going crazy. "What? What's so funny? What happened?"

Amelia stood and whispered, "It's a long story. I'll explain in your room." So, once they were both in Vince's room, sitting on his bed, she explained the story of the injured man and the faulty automail, and how he had been unconscious for more than a week. She ended by explaining about the transmutation, and by showing him her blind eye.

Vince leaned back in his bed and closed his eyes. He fought back a laugh- it's not that he found the situation funny, it was just that it was so surreal. Had he really been asleep for a week? He hadn't noticed the time pass at all. Trying to keep his attitude light, he opened an eye and jokingly asked, "So, what are Mom and Dad gonna think of my new tattoo?"

His sister snorted, and Vince opened his eyes fully. The girl frowned and replied, "We can't tell them."

"What? Why not?"

Amelia scoffed. "Human transmutation is illegal. Really illegal. So illegal that the state will execute people for trying it. We can't tell Mom and Dad. We can't tell anyone."

"Mia, Mom and Dad aren't going to turn us into the state."

"Exactly," Mia agreed. When her brother scowled in confusion, she continued. "Not turning me in is illegal too. So the less people who know, the less people we get into trouble, and the better off we all are."

"So why'd you tell me?" Vince raised an eyebrow.

With a frustrated scowl, Mia cried, "Because the tattoo is _on_ you, duh, you idiot." The alchemist's face grew soft. "Plus, it's not like I have a lot of knowledge on human transmutation, Vince. What if I messed up? There could be something very wrong with you, and you have a right to know why."

"Like what? What might be wrong?" Vincent tried to hide the worry from his tone, but he did a poor job of it.

Amelia shrugged. "I dunno. We'll have to wait and find out."

The brother sighed tiredly, but let the conversation dwindled into a comfortable silence. Then, Vince huffed out a sigh and pushed himself deeper into his bed. "So," he said, "now what?"

"Oh," Amelia murmured. Then, with a devious grin on her face, she stood. Messily pulling her hair in front of the left half of her face, she glanced in the mirror to make sure her eye wasn't visible. Then, she turned towards the door.

"What are you doing?" Vince questioned as the girl made her way out of the room. "Where are you going?"

Ignoring her brother, Amelia crept down the hall towards her parents' room. Then she knocked softly on the door. From the other side of the door, she heard her father call groggily for her to come in.

"Mom? Dad?" Her voice was soft, but there was a grin slowly stretching across her face.

"What is it, Sweetheart?" Winry asked. She sounded exhausted, and Amelia knew it was because she hadn't been sleeping much. But she was about to change that.

"Vince is awake."


	9. Chapter 9

**Guys, I swear to god, I'm not even close to ready with another chapter being written. ****BUT**** it's been a while since I updated, so I'm drawing from my stock pile to supply you with some good reading.**

**So have at it!**

* * *

CHAPTER 9

There wasn't a single moment that he could recall which had made him feel as uncomfortable as he did right now.

It was because she loved him- of course he knew that. And yeah, he could see why she'd been sad. But when his mother had collapsed in tears on his bed, Vincent was left at a loss, completely unsure of what to do. Was he supposed to do anything at all?

He hadn't experienced the heart wrenching ten days of uncertainty, depression, and loss, like the rest of his family had. He'd slept right through their misery. To him, not even an hour had passed. So, Vince couldn't really understand. He kept expecting his mom to stop crying, smack him across the back of the head, and tell him to never be that stupid again.

But it never came. Winry was too overjoyed, too overworked, too overwhelmed, to do anything but cry and hold him in her arms. Ed was trying to keep a tough face, but when he pulled his son and wife into his arms as well, he had to hide his watery eyes in Winry's hair.

Al and Mei must have been awakened by the commotion, because they had soon made their way up the rickety stairs and into the boy's bedroom. After a startled instance of realization, they too had quickly joined in on the hug.

A laugh and a tear escaped Amelia as she watched her family from her brother's desk. The sun was beginning to shine through the bedroom window, and the entire scene was one of awe-inspiring joy. She laughed again and felt a smile pull tight at her lips.

Upon hearing the teenager's laugh, Mei looked over to the girl. Their eyes met, and for a moment Amelia felt her heart stop. This startled her, and Mia's breath was caught in her throat, but her aunt didn't notice and soon the feeling passed. The Xing women motioned for Mia to come closer, and once her niece was in range, she had pulled her deep into the hug as well.

Once Winry's crying had subdued, Vince shook his confined arms as much as he could manage and chuckled out, "Alright, enough! You guys are gonna suffocate me in here! Off, all of you! Off!" The family disentangled themselves and moved off of the boy's bed, except for his mother, who firmly held his hands in her own. From the corner of his eye, Vince could see Amelia make her way to his bedroom door. She smiled to him brightly, before slipping away.

"How are you feeling?" Winry asked the boy, drawing his attention back to her. "Are you feeling sick? Hungry? Do you need anything?"

Vince rolled his eyes, which only made his father grin. "No, Mom. I feel fine." She didn't look convinced. "Really, I feel like I just woke up from a nap."

"It's a miracle." Winry's voice was weak, but elated.

Ed ruffled his son's hair. "You sure, Vince?"

"Yeah, Dad. Really, I'm fine."

Vincent wasn't surprised when his father ignored him and turned to his aunt. "Mei, would you mind taking a look at him?"

This persuaded a sigh out of the boy, but Mei seemed as though she'd been expecting it. She sat down on the edge of his bed and took his hands from Winry. "Just for a minute," she told the mother. Winry nodded in understanding. Then Mei turned to Vince. "I'm just going to check your chi for a minute. It's like looking in at your soul. It'll tell me if you're hurt at all."

"My soul, huh?" Vince frowned. That didn't sound good. Mia specifically said that no one was to find out that she'd messed with his soul. "How are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to use alkahestry. It's the Xing version of alchemy, and it will help me to see if your chi flows as it should."

"I though alchemy with human souls was illegal?" When his Aunt's expression turned to surprise, he looked around at everyone else in the room. The only person who looked nonplused over what he'd said was his mother. Winry only smiled knowingly.

"Yes, that's true," Ed finally said, a frown light on his face. "Vince, where'd you hear that?"

The boy shrugged. "I dunno. Around?"

Ed looked like he was going to press further, but Winry cut him off. "I told you they were smart kids, Ed. They're gonna hear about this stuff eventually."

He wanted to ask more, dig further, but Vince was cut off when Mei replied, "Regardless, I won't be using alkahestry to alter your soul. I'm only going to use it too look at it, so there's nothing to worry about. No changing, no illegal activities, nothing like that."

The boy nodded, uncertain. "And there's nothing I can say that will change your mind, right?" His tone came across defeated.

Mei laughed and hugged the boy gently. "There's no reason to be afraid! It won't hurt or anything, I promise!" Then, she pulled away and grasped his hands once again. "Are you ready?" When her nephew gave a hesitant nod, she closed her eyes and felt for his chi.

It took everything Vincent had to keep his breathing steady and calm as he watched his aunt's face furrow in concern. Resisting the urge to clench his fingers together tightly, he instead curled his toes and gently bit his lip.

Finally, his aunt opened her eyes.

"Is your ankle hurt?" Not the question Vince had been expecting. "There seems to be a small amount of chi clustering there unnaturally. Is it okay?"

"My left ankle?" His aunt nodded. Why wasn't he surprised? His soul felt unnatural where his sister had forcefully bound it to him – what a shock. "Yeah, I sprained it yesterd- I mean, about a week ago, I guess. It should be almost better by now."

The Xingese woman exhaled through her nose, but nodded her head. "Would you like me to heal it for you?"

"No!" Vince nearly shouted. Mei raised her eyebrows. "I, uh, would rather let it heal naturally, if that's okay."

Winry laid a gentle hand on her sister-in-law's shoulder. "He doesn't know a thing about alchemy, Mei, much less alkahestry. You can't blame him for being nervous."

Mei nodded and shrugged good-naturedly. "That's fine Vince," she said with a kind smile. "Let me know if you change your mind."

The adults began to slowly clear from Vince's room once they realized that it was still only 5 in the morning. They hadn't really wanted to leave, but when Vince had made the claim of still feeling weak, none of them blamed him for wanting to go back to bed.

It wasn't so much that he felt tired. He was just so dazed. It'd been a long, strange night for him. He needed some time alone, to think.

Meanwhile, Amelia was busy with a project of her own. The sunrise was gleaming off of her bedroom mirror, lighting her face. She stared at it numbly, considering her options. What was she to do with that gray eye?

She didn't resent it. It was a burden she was happy to pay, and given the option to redo it all over, she'd gladly trade it again. But, that didn't make it a prize to put on parade. Quite the opposite- she planned to hide it at all cost. Who knew what the consequences would be if someone discovered what she had done. What would they do to her? Even more horrifying- what would they do to Vince?

This left her with very little options.

Taking a comb from her dresser, she pulled her hair to the side, parting it on the right side of her head instead of straight down the middle. Mia picked up a red hair clip in the shape of a rose and took the large, repositioned chunk of hair and tried to pin it to the left side of her head, covering her left eye.

The hair was too heavy. The clip slowly slid down the side of her head, and wisps of hair escaped it, leaving her eye uncovered. She sighed and removed the rose.

Amelia had known that that was going to happen.

She scowled softly at the pair of scissors lying on her dresser, and then picked them. Looking herself straight in the eyes, Mia kept her face blank and observed herself one last time in the mirror.

With a determined huff, the young alchemist finally brought the scissors up to her face. She placed the metal firmly on the chunk of hair she had tried to clip up before, and then began to slowly shear it away.

Strand after strand fell away as Amelia determinedly styled her hair into a pair of swooping side bangs. Hair floated softly to her desk, covering her books and her writings. Then, once her bangs were long enough to cover her eye, but light enough to stay put within the clip, she stopped and looked herself over in the mirror.

It didn't look bad. It looked good, actually.

It just didn't look like her.

She swept the mess of hair off of her dresser and into her hand before hastily depositing it into the trash can by her bedside.

What was the cost of a human soul? An eye and a haircut.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes at herself. Then, she climbed into bed for a few hours of well-earned sleep.

* * *

**Alright, I have a game for you, loyal, beloved readers!**

**QUIZ:**

**What do you think is wrong with Vince? How has this transmutation affected him?**

**OR - do you think he's perfectly fine, and** **everything went perfect- no side effects or consequences.**

**Let me know what you think in a review, and if you guess right, I'll dedicate the next chapter to you. If you get kinda close, you can have an internet cookie, I suppose.**

**If you don't want to guess, but you're dying to know the answer, then just hold tight and stay tuned- we'll find out next chapter. )**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, so you guys didn't really get the answer right, but that's okay. I'll be telling you now. :)**

* * *

CHAPTER 10

"Get up!"

Vince pulled the blanket down, uncovering his face. He gave a quiet groan and peered up at his sister.

Amelia stuck her tongue out at him. "Come on, get up already! Get out of bed! Fight me!"

"Are you serious?" His eyes went wide in disbelief, and his tone was incredulous. This was not happening. This seriously was not happening. Vincent tugged the blankets back up over his head and curled himself up in a tight ball. "I just woke up from a damn coma. If I don't want to train, I 'm not going to. Besides, you're missing an eye!"

"Viiiiince," the girl whined. "My eye's not gone- it's just, you know, useless. Grey and blind. It's not like it hurts, though. And besides, you've been awake for three days now. I'm bored. Get up and fight me already."

"No."

"Please?"

Vince pulled the blanket down again, now glaring angrily at his sister. "I said no, and I meant no! Get out!"

Mia pouted and sat down on the edge of his bed, pulling her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms tight around her legs. "Vince…" she muttered softly.

"Whaaaaaat?"

"You haven't done much moving around in the past few days." She turned sad eyes towards him. "I just wanna make sure you're okay."

The boy exhaled, the anger fading from him. She was guilt tripping him. But it wasn't going to work- not today. "I'm okay. Now let me sleep."

Amelia twitched her nose and pressed her forehead to her knees. She sat there, patiently, until her brother finally groaned, "Are you going to leave?"

She shook her head.

"I want you to leave!"

"Vince, you haven't been out of bed for more than three hours in the past three days. What if I messed up the transmutation? What if your muscles aren't functioning properly? Or you lost your sense of balance? What if all of your coordination is gone?" She picked her head up from her knees. "I just wanna make sure you're okay."

"You're not going to drop this, are you?" When his sister shook her head again, Vincent grumbled under his breathe but stood. "Fine. Fine! I'll fight you."

Mia grinned and leaped off of his bed. "I'll meet you out front in ten! I'm going to kick your butt!"

"Ha!" her brother called after her. As Mia swung his bedroom door closed, the boy cried out, "You don't look so worried about me now!" He pursed his lips together and huffed, "We'll see whose ass gets kicked. I'll show her."

About five minutes later, the two siblings met in the soft grass outside their home. Amelia was poised in a firm but casual fighting stance, while Vince was eying her down. He waited patiently, knowing Mia would not have the nerve to hold her ground, and would be sure to attack him. Never strike first – it was a rule he lived by, because it was easier to counter a straight forward attack, rather than attack past a prepared counter.

His patience paid off- Mia sprung up and dived towards him. He side stepped her to the left and went to place an elbow into her back, but the blow missed when she rolled out of the way. He was caught off guard when Mia sprung up and kicked him in the side. What could he say – he'd been in a coma for a week and a half. It wasn't his fault that his reflexes weren't at their peak. Regardless, the kick hadn't hurt any, so he swung a fist back and tried to knock his sister over the head. She looked surprised – she must have meant to kick him harder- but she still managed to dodge.

They continued like this for some time. Mia got in more hits than she normally did, since Vince wasn't on top of his game, but Vince still emerged the winner.

When they plopped down into the grass, Vince stretched and grinned. None of the hits his sister had landed had hurt any, and the exercise felt great after being fairly immobile for so long. With a contented sigh, Vince confessed to his sister, "I'm glad you made me do that."

Mia sat up and stretched her sore arms, before sighing and lying back down. "Well, at least you're happy." She was beat up. Vince was throwing punches much harder than he normally did, and she was regretting making him spar with her. "You got me pretty good out there."

The boy shrugged. "Sorry, I guess. It didn't really feel like I was hitting that hard. I guess you're just out of practice."

The young alchemist let loose an agreeable hum and watched the clouds float past overhead. Her brother was probably right. She hadn't sparred for just as long as him.

They watched the clouds pass by, and let the sun warm their sore muscles. Their parents had told them that they did not need to return to class until the start of the next week, so they still had four days to get their lives back to normal. It was nice, to not have any expectations for a little while.

"Hey, Vince?" Mia twined her fingers casually in the grass, feeling the dirt clump beneath her fingers. "You couldn't see my eye while we were fighting, right?"

She couldn't see her brother, but she heard him shake his head against the grass. "Nah, your hair was always covering it. You're good."

The girl nodded. That had been her major concern for the past few days. No one had noticed her eye yet, but she was worried it would be hard to hide. Her mother had already made a comment about not liking her new hair style. She had only said it in passing, though. Chances were she wouldn't make her change it back.

There was one more thing that was bothering her, though. "Hey Vince?"

"Yeah?" the boy asked, though he sounded very distracted.

"Have you noticed anything weird with Aunt Mei?"

"Huh?"

The girl furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know. She just feels….weird. I can't describe it."

Ever since she'd returned Vince's soul to his body, Amelia found that she could always tell where her family was- she could feel them within the house. It was like their energy called to her. Vince's was the most distinctive- if he was nearby, then she always knew where he was. But the same applied for her whole family.

It was strange. Mia hadn't really thought about it much. This development would have normally caused her to worry, but it felt so natural that she barely gave it a second thought anymore. It just seemed right.

Except for when it came to her Aunt Mei. Out of everyone in her family, her aunt's soul felt the most unique- almost like something was wrong. Amelia wondered if it was because she was used to the feel her family gave off- since Mei wasn't related by blood, maybe she would feel different? But that didn't seem right.

Vince rolled his eyes at his sister's question. "What do you mean, she feels weird? How can someone feel weird?"

Mia sighed. How could she clarify this to her brother? It wasn't something she could explain. Deciding that it wasn't worthwhile to even try, she mumbled, "Never mind, Vince. I'm sure it was nothing."

"You're a loser, Mia."

His sister just shrugged and ignored him.

Time passed as clouds continued to float by overhead, and the older brother contemplated a concern of his own. Finally, Vince worked up the nerve to ask. Biting his lip, he said, "I didn't actually hurt you while we were fighting, right?"

Mia blinked. Well, that was a surprise. He was worried about her? "No, nothing bad. Just a little rougher than usual, that's all."

"You should have said something. I didn't even notice." Vince huffed. "Geez, now I feel bad. You were pulling your punches and I was beating the living shit out of you."

"You weren't beating the snot out of me." Amelia frowned and scrunched up her nose. "And I wasn't pulling my punches. I mean, I was at the start, because I was afraid you wouldn't be up to a real fight, but near the end, when you were going harder than normal, I starting giving it my all. I got you pretty good, too- some of those hits should have really hurt, Vince."

"Nah, I barely felt it," the boy said, a cocky grin growing across his face. "I guess I'm just cut from tougher stuff than you, pipsqueak."

Mia rolled over and glanced at her brother's arm. Already she could see a deep purple bruise spreading where she had landed a particularly rough kick. Biting her lip, she forcefully jabbed her finger into the bruise.

Vince looked up at her. "Yeah, what?"

"You feel that, right?" Amelia twisted her finger, pushing it in further.

Vince shrugged and looked back up at the clouds. "Yeah, I can feel you poking me."

"It doesn't hurt, though?"

"What?" Vincent sat up again, actually examining his arm this time. He frowned at the coloration of the bruise. "Huh. No. It doesn't hurt." He looked up at his sister, an eyebrow raised in indifference. "Is that bad?"

"Maybe," she replied hesitantly. Pursing her lips, Amelia drew her knife from her sock and stared her brother down. "Give me your hand."

This time, Vince didn't whine or complain. Solemnly, he presented his sister with his hand. The girl took it and thinly traced a cut into the palm of her brother's skin.

A few droplets of blood surfaced.

"Well?" Amelia's voice was soft.

"That cut was nothing. Of course it wouldn't hurt." Her brother was scowling, though his voice remained calm. "Try cutting a little harder."

Gripping the knife tighter, Mia slowly pressed it deeper into her brother's hand. They both stared numbly as blood began gushing.

Slowly, Vince raised his bloody hand to eye-level. "Huh," he muttered dazedly, "I didn't feel that at all." A grin began to slowly strectch across his face. "That's pretty bad-ass."

"Vince!" Mia cried, the shock wearing off. "It's not cool! It's bad! Really bad! What if you get really hurt but you don't feel it so it gets infected and you die? Or what if you bleed out? Or-"

"Amelia?"

"What?!" the girl barked, her eyes wide with paranoia.

"Speaking of bleeding out…." He waved the gushing hand in front of his sister's face.

The girl's jaw dropped, and then she let lose a startled 'eep.' Swiftly clapping, she pressed her hands to her brother's cut and healed it with alchemy.

Vince smiled at this. "See?" he told her confidently. "This is what I keep you around for. If I'm ever seriously injured, you'll notice and heal it for me."

Mia shook her head. "That's not what I'm here for, you moron. And you can't just act like-" Mia's sentence caught in her throat. Realization dawned on her face, and she softly muttered, "How'd I do that?"

Vince wasn't following. "How'd you do what?"

"Transmute without a circle." Mia looked at her hands, before clenching them and furrowing her eyebrows. "That shouldn't be possible. A transmutation circle is required for all alchemy." Her eyes turned to her brother's face. "It shouldn't be possible. So how'd I do that?"

Vince shrugged - it didn't really seem like a big deal to him. "You practically brought me back from the dead, Mia, and this is the impossibility you decide to freak out about? Stop worrying and calm down for a little bit."

Mia grimaced but let loose a deep breathe. "Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I suppose this isn't the most incredible thing I've seen." She shook her head softly. "It's pretty high on the list, though."

"A lot has happened," Vince reassured her, his voice kind for once. Standing swiftly and brushing the dirt and grass from his pants, he continued with, "It's going to take some time to get used to." The softness fell from his tone, and a taunting quality replaced it. "Besides, I can't feel pain, and you're freaking out about some stupid circle? You need to get your priorities right, you weirdo."

Mia's tongue darted out of her mouth, and she let the anxiety escape her for now. "I'm not a weirdo, you jerk." She gave her brother a weary smile. "You're probably right, though. Things might be different for a while, but we'll get used to them."

Vince offered Amelia a hand, and gently lifted her off the ground.

He ruffled her hair. "Just give it some time."

* * *

**Say whhhhhat? Alright, the next few chapters might be kinda dull, but they're important, I swear, so bare with me. Once we get to Chapter 15 and on, it's pure action. **


	11. Chapter 11

**You guys know how I said that the story wasn't going to be exciting again until Chapter 15?**

**I lied.**

**I've decided- fuck that. This chapter and the next one will stay as they are, but from then on out, we're cutting straight to the action, because I've built up enough background that everyone should be able to tell what's going on now.**

**BUT - that means, since I'm scrapping a few of the chapters I already have written, my stockpile is disintegrating. From here on out, I'm probably changing to a "you get it when it's ready" style of writing. So it might take longer for updates. But it'll be more exciting. What do you think?**

* * *

CHAPTER 11

"Aunt Mei, are you pregnant?"

When his sister spoke, Vince startled and coughed, sending specks of the food he was eating all over his plate.

Alphonse and Mei had only intended to visit for a week, but when Vince had fallen into a coma, they had decided to stay in Resembool a little longer and help in any way they could. Now that he was awake, though, the two needed to leave for Xing soon. They had been gone for too long – both had missed far too much work, and, while Vince wasn't exactly sure what they did for a living, he knew it was political and important.

So, since this was the last dinner the family would enjoy together before Al and Mei left again, their mother had worked hard to make it extra special. Lamb chops in a creamy milk-based gravy, beans seasoned over a smoky grill, and creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes, with a fresh apple pie for dessert. And so far, it had all been delicious- a perfect evening.

But no, Mia had to go and ruin the mood. Vince groaned under his breath.

Mei herself had dropped her fork, her eyes wide with shock.

"Amelia!" Winry cried in shock. "That's an incredibly rude thing to ask!"

As if she hadn't realized that she'd spoken out-loud, Mia's face suddenly flared bright red, and she stood abruptly, sending her chair skidding backwards. "I'm sorry…" she managed to squeak out, and then the girl darted off to her room.

The rest of the table watched her in awe.

Vince groaned again, louder this time, and his family now turned to look at him. He shook his head tiredly. "I'll get her," he said, rubbing his eyes as he headed upstairs.

Both Mei and Al still looked shocked. Trying to disperse the awkwardness, Winry laughed and assured her sister-in-law, "Mei, I don't know what she's talking about. You're as petite as you've always been."

"I'm not offended," Mei said, blinking as she slowly faded out of her shock. "I'm really surprised." She looked up and grinned embarrassedly. "It's just that, well, she's right."

Silence followed.

As time ticked on, Ed started to slowly chuckle. Then, with a grin stretching across his face, he asked, "Seriously?"

Mei nodded dully, starting to laugh herself, and Al began to grin.

"We wanted to tell you when we got into town," the father-to-be explained, "but with everything that's been happening, it never seemed like the right time."

Playfully slugging his brother on the shoulder, Ed replied, "Good for you, Al. You're gonna be a great dad."

Downstairs, all four adults were grinning in joy.

Upstairs, Amelia was sitting dazedly on her bed, her head resting on her knees.

Vincent poked his head in the door. "You're an idiot."

Mia didn't look up. "I didn't mean to say it out loud." Her voice was soft. Vince raised an eyebrow. With a sigh, the girl explained, "Aunt Mei felt weird lately. I told you that yesterday, when we finished sparring, remember?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "And then, today I realized, it's because she feels like she has extra energy."

"Well, I guess she is pretty energetic?"

Her lips twitched towards a smile, but Amelia's voice remained distant. "It's not that kind of energy. It's hard to explain, Vince. It's like I can feel her life force, you know?" When her brother didn't answer, Mia sighed and continued her explanation, "Anyways, it feels like she has a lot of life in her. Not like she's lively or peppy, but like she had a lot of soul. I dunno. Like I said, it's hard to explain. But whatever it is, it made me think that, well, maybe she has extra life in her because she's going to have a baby?" A soft chuckle escaped her. "I just didn't mean to say it out-loud."

Vince sat on the bed next to his sister. When he spoke, his voice managed to make her look up. "How confident do you feel about this, Mia? Like, do you really believe that you can…uhh….feel peoples' souls?" He straightened his lips. "Like, is this really legit?"

Shifting her gaze back down to her hands, Amelia shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it is, Vince. I've been able to feel where people are in the house, and be able to tell who is who. Whenever I go to check, I've found that I'm never wrong."

"You can tell people apart?"

"Yeah," she muttered, shrugging again. "Everyone has a different feeling to them. It's pretty easy to figure out which feeling goes to which person."

"What else can you do?" Vince asked, propping his head on his knees.

"I think that's it, besides transmuting without a circle" she said, shaking her head slowly. "Which I haven't been able to do again. I've tried, but I can't make it work. Maybe it was just a one time thing?"

It was her brother's turn to shrug. "I bet you just need more practice." When Amelia didn't reply, he pushed her playfully and retorted, "Why are you acting so solemn about this, Mia? Don't you think it's awesome?"

"It's wrong, Vince." Her voice was tight. "I mean, it doesn't feel wrong- I feel perfectly healthy and whole and whatever- but…. it shouldn't be happening. It goes against nature- against science. It goes against everything I know about alchemy."

Vince laughed, startling Mia enough to make her jump. "You think you're not normal?" The boy grinned arrogantly. "I don't feel pain, Mia! And who knows what else is weird about me! I've only been awake for four days! I bet I'm some sort of monster!" He growled fiercely, before ruffling his sister's hair again. "And you don't see me worrying about being a freak."

Mia stuck out her tongue. "That's because you've always been a freak. Plus, I've never seen you worry about anything."

Shrugging, Vince replied, "It's called relaxing, Mia. You should try it sometime. It's the best way to live."

Somehow, Vince always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better. Amelia hugged her brother tightly, and put on a happy face.

Maybe everything really would be okay.

* * *

**Alright, talk to me here, folks. I've got some questions that I would really appreciate an answer for, if you have the time, of course.**

**1) Can you tell Amelia and Vince's personalities? I don't want to just write out, "Amelia is this way and Vince it this way." I want it to be apparent from their actions and thoughts. If so, what do you think their personalities are like? Just so I can see if I'm doing a good job of portraying them as I would like.**

**2) Are there any other characters you would like to see involved in this story? I already have quite a few planned, but we're not to it quite yet.**

**3) Anything you guys wanna see happen?**

_**EDIT: ****4) What do you think of this writing style? Do I spend too much time describing character's reactions? Too much time on dialog? Would you rather see more action?**_

**If you could answer these questions for me, guys, I would really appreciate it, because then I would be able to tell how I want to shape this story in the future, and what I need to change about the plot and about my writing style. **

**THANKS IN ADVANCE.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry this took a while, but guys...**

**NOW IS WHEN IT GETS GOOD!**

**So enjoy!**

* * *

CHAPTER 12

When the letter came in, three years had passed since Vincent's accident.

The siblings had discovered much in this time.

It wasn't long before Vince noticed that he never felt hungry anymore. It wasn't that he didn't need to eat, or that he didn't want to anymore – hell, he loved food- but he could never tell if he was supposed to eat or not, or how much food he needed to be full. Amelia found that, if she forgot to remind her brother, he could go days without eating and not even notice.

Mia had also caught the older boy up and about the house at hours when the rest of the family was sound asleep. He had claimed that he did not need to sleep anymore, but she had often found him passed out on a couch after a long day at school. He'd even passed out during class, though he'd done that before the accident, so neither child was sure if it was cause for concern. However, it did appear that he need to get some amount of rest each day. So, after much reprimanding from his sister, Vincent set himself to a strict sleep schedule. Just because he didn't feel tired didn't mean he didn't need sleep.

And, though Amelia thought it had something to do with his inability to feel pain, the two had also discovered that Vince could not distinguish between temperatures. If he wanted to wear shorts in a snow storm, he probably could. He'd still get frostbite, but he wouldn't be able to feel it. He wasn't that stupid, though, so this hadn't been much of an issue so far. Besides some minor, unnoticed burns that he'd obtained while he was cooking, there hadn't been much trouble. Amelia had healed them, and the issue slipped from their thoughts.

As for the younger sister, her discoveries had been far lesser. One thing that hadn't changed was Mia's ability to feel others' souls. She did, however, experience one major change. It was with her alchemy. By practicing on her own and sparring with her brother, the girl had mastered her ability to transmute without a circle. She found that the clapping was necessary – she needed a circle involved somehow, to complete the matrix, and the one she made with her arms during a clap worked just fine. Then, if she could envision the transmutation circle she wanted, her hands would glow and the alchemy would come to her.

In three years, the two had finally grown used to the changes.

It was too bad that one little letter would start the chain reaction that would change their lives all over again.

"Ed!" Winry called from the kitchen. "Come read this! Edward! Hurry up!"

Amelia had been in the study with her father, lounging in the plush leather chair that had been her favorite since she was just a little girl. At age sixteen, she was no taller than she had been at thirteen, standing at a little less than five feet, two inches. She felt that she still looked like a child, and, while it wasn't the end of the world, it wasn't something she liked. It didn't help that her face was round and that her vigorous sparring kept her body fat levels low. She barely appeared older than fourteen.

At her mother's calls, Ed looked up from his books, though he didn't seem particularly motivated to move. He turned to his daughter, grinned mischievously, and asked, "Well, what do you think? Should I go, or should I wait and see how long it takes before your mother gets angry enough to come and get me herself?" The amused smirk pulled further up his face.

The girl rolled her eyes and stood, setting her book down on the chair behind her. "Dad, don't antagonize Mom. Besides, it sounds important." As if to prove her daughter's point, Winry once again called from down the stairs. Mia grinned and stretched, then headed towards the door. "I wanna go see what it's about."

Ed huffed, but it was good-naturedly. With a laugh to himself, he followed his daughter downstairs.

Vince was already in the kitchen, badgering his mother with a pout on his face. "Come on, Mom. I want to know what it's about!" Standing just short of six feet tall, Vince was already taller than both of his parents (something that annoyed their father to no end). When the siblings had noticed that he was continuing to grow, both had been relieved. They had been worried that the transmutation would keep him from changing. It was good to know that he wasn't trapped in the body of an awkward fifteen year old forever. At age eighteen, Vincent was beginning to look like an adult.

"No," Winry said, swatting her son's hand away. "It's addressed to your father, not to you."

"Not fair!" Vince slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and crossed his arms over his chest. "You got to read it."

"I'm your mother. I get to do things you don't." At this, Vince pouted harder, but it was easy to tell that he was not actually upset.

Mia plopped herself down in the chair next to her brother, and at his questioning look, she shrugged. "What? I wanna know what the big deal is too."

Following behind his daughter, Ed snatched the letter from his wife's outstretched hand. He observed the content smirk on Winry's face, then pulled two papers out of the envelope.

"So?" Vince whined as his father's eyes darted across the page. "What is it?"

Ed shrugged, trying to act casual, but the grin growing across his face was blowing his cover. "It's a press release, and an invitation."

Vincent gritted his teeth together in irritation. He wanted to know what the papers said, not what they were. "What's the release say? What is the invite to?"

"Ah, nothing." Ed smirked and sat down in the chair next to his wife. "This," he held up the press release, "is just an official announcement of Fuhrer Grumman's retirement. And the other," he held up the invitation, "is an invite to the inauguration of Brigadier General Roy Mustang as the new Fuhrer." He turned to his wife, and muttered, "Who'd have thought the old bastard would finally make it to Fuhrer, right?"

Winry gave him a playful shove. "Of course he made it, Ed."

Vince was not as amused as his parents. "Mom, why couldn't you just tell me that?"

"Because your father wasn't here yet," she said with a slight frown, "and because this is a big deal, Vince."

"Colonel Bastard has been a good friend of mine since before you two were born," Edward said. Then, he grimaced. "You can't tell him I said that, though."

The importance wasn't sinking in to Vince, and though Mia was excited to be lucky enough to receive an invite to the inauguration of the new Fuhrer, she wasn't as thrilled as he parents. Neither child had heard more than a few sentences about a Roy Mustang from their parents – all they knew was from the news over the radio. They'd heard that he was a good man and a hard working soldier, and that was about it.

But their father worked in Central frequently enough that it didn't surprise them that he had some important friends up there.

Though the nickname "Colonel Bastard" was a mystery.

And so it was that, less than two weeks later, the whole family had packed up and headed to Central.

Winry had called ahead and asked a family friend, Gracia Hughes, if they would be able to stay with her for a few days. Gracia had been more than happy to oblige, even going so far as to say that she'd been expecting them to come once her and her daughter, Elicia, had received their own invites.

It was late when the Elric family finally arrived, so after many hugs and a wonderful meal, everyone turned in for the night. Mia and Vince would be sleeping on the floor in Elicia's room, while the older girl would, of course, take her own bed.

Elicia, who was twenty-four, worked in Central Library and had an apartment of her own near the edge of town. However, since the ceremony was early in the morning and her mother's flat was far closer to Central Command, where the ceremony was being held, the girl had decided to stay at her mother's house for the night.

Which was perfectly fine with Mia and Vince. They didn't mind sleeping on the floor, and were more than happy to get the chance to share a room with Elicia. Whenever their mother had to leave town to help a customer with their automail, but their father had to leave for an extended trip to Central, Elicia had been called in to stay with the siblings for a week or so. It had been six or seven years since the two had needed her to babysit for them, but all the time they had spent together as children had made the siblings view her as a cousin or older sister.

The three had stayed up late, catching up on all the things they had missed from each other's lives. Elicia told stories of her ex-boyfriend, who had apparently been a creep who liked to follow her places, which prompted Vince to tell a story of the fall harvest dance, where his date did the exact opposite, and never showed up. Mia laughed, taunted her brother playfully, ("It's because no one wants to have to be seen with a jerk like you.") and began the story of how her father had efficiently scared her first crush away from her forever. The story involved a confused fourteen-year-old boy and an overly calm, calculating father with an extensive knowledge on highly acidic, burning, corrosive, _deadly_ chemicals. Elicia and Vince laughed, and although Mia pretended she was still bitter, she too smiled good-naturedly. Elicia then added that Roy Mustang, the Fuhrer to be, was the one who always ended up scaring away all of her would-be boyfriends. This surprised the Elric kids, but their friend just shrugged and explained that he and her father had been close friends, many years ago.

When the night grew dark, the kids eventually settled down and tried to fall asleep. Elicia passed out within minutes- she'd had to go into work at 5:00 AM that morning, to prepare the library for opening for the day. She was running on fumes as it was, and neither of the Elrics blamed her when she fell asleep so quickly.

After about an hour ticked by, and sleep refused to come, Mia whispered into the darkness, "Vince? You awake?"

"Yeah," her brother replied. He let the silence linger for a moment, and then continued quietly. "It's hard to fall asleep when you don't ever feel tired, you know?" His voice was contemplative, and it was one of the first times Amelia had ever heard him sound so adult. "You just have to lie awake and hope sleep comes to take you. Closing your eyes helps, but, sometimes, it feels like forever before it happens."

"I'm sorry, Vince." Mia felt guilt clump in her stomach, not for the first time.

Vince snorted softly, all traces of maturity gone. "For what?"

"For messing up, Vince." The girl shook her head against the pillow. "I made a mistake on the transmutation, and now you're…. broken."

Her brother sat up and shoved her forcefully. This was not the first time his sister had said something stupid like that. Amelia had to bite back a yip. "You didn't make a mistake, Mia. You made a hard choice, and a sacrifice." He sounded angry, though he kept his voice low. "And I'm not broken- I'm alive. And that's all thanks to you. So stop apologizing to me already."

Mia bit her lip. She was strong- she always knew this about herself. She could take a punch better than any boy her age, and give one back twice as hard. She could push herself, staying up late into the night and waking up early in the morning, in order to learn everything she could about the world around her. She could work herself until she broke down and wore thin, and then keep going.

But breaking her brother? Unforgivable.

Vince sighed. Even in the silence- even though Amelia hadn't spoken- he could tell that his sister was still upset.

"Hey, why don't we go and explore the city?"

Mia snapped out of her thoughts. "What? Right now? Vince, it's like 1 in the morning."

"So?" Vince pulled the blankets off of him. "Neither of us is getting to bed anytime soon, right? Plus we're good fighters, if there's any trouble. But there won't be, because who would bother a couple of kids?"

"Vince, no." The girl shook her head. "That's a really bad idea. Let's just stay here."

In the reflection of the pale moonlight, Mia could see a cocky grin slowly spread across her brother's face. "Why? Are you scared?"

"I'm not scared!" Mia shouted quietly. She looked to Elicia, who was still sound asleep. Then, lowering her voice, she continued. "It's just a really bad idea!"

"Uh huh." Vince was taunting her. "You're just terrified- a big, frightened baby." Mia grit her teeth. "It's a good thing you look like a little kid, then, huh?"

Mia shoved herself up. "Fine, you jerk! I'll go!" With crossed arms, she glared him down and quietly muttered, "But if something goes wrong, it is entirely your fault."

Vince grinned, victorious, and followed his sister out the door and into the night.

* * *

**It might be a while before my next update. Let me know what you thought of this chapter. I haven't written the next one yet, so I'm a little uncertain of how it's going to turn out.**

**If you have an ideas, you should let me know!**

**I'll be back soon! See you in a little while!**


	13. Chapter 13

**OMG guys.**

**This took way too long.**

**And I have a feeling the next chapter is going to take a while too.**

**I've been swamped lately. Just drowning. I'll try to keep my head above water, I swear. Expect an update next Monday. It shouldn't take much longer than that. Hopefully.**

* * *

**ms. cheerful asked: does that mean vince is sorta like homunculus?**

**Not quite. Homunculus are built with their cores as philosopher's stones, right? And each stone has multiple souls. Vince only has his own soul. I don't want to say much more, and ruin the story. One more of Vince's quirks (probably the most major one) is revealed in this chapter, though. :) Thanks for being one of my most loyal readers, by the way. I appreciate it.**

* * *

**ArtisticFantasy said: It would be nice to see what happens in the little midnight stroll they have before it gets to Mustang's inauguration.**

**Don't worry. It's coming up now. And it's not what you're expecting, I promise.**

* * *

**And a guest cautioned me against leading these two down the same path as Ed and Al. No worried there- I have a unique story of my own all planned out. )**

**ENJOY!**

* * *

CHAPTER 13

He dodged a punch, then charged towards his attacker, taking the man's legs out in with a wide, sweeping kick. As this rival fell, another took his place, while an additional member of their gang charged Vince from behind. The older Elric sibling elbowed the man behind him before twisting his body weight sideways and landing a punch in the face of the man in front of him.

From across the street, Vince could see his sister fighting her own large group, trying to fend them off with all her might. Amelia landed an impressively high kick to one of the men's faces, and then made eye contact with her brother, mouthing what appeared to be, "I'm going to kill you," before she continued fighting. Vince cringed. She was right to be angry- it was his fault they were in this mess.

After all, he was the one who had convinced her to go out so late at night. He was the one who had accidentally bumped into the man on the side of the street. He was the one who had refused to apologize when the man had confronted him. He was the one who had instead decided to make some snarky comment about the guy's looks- ("Woah, Mia, did this warthog just talk?!").

So, it wasn't much of a surprise when the guy swung a heavy fist towards Vincent's skull. What had been surprising, however, were the twenty other men who had filed into the street once the fighting had begun. What, had he picked the night of the Central City Gang Dance to start a fight or something? Why else were so many of them gathered together? Maybe they were taking a class picture? Nah, with faces like these, they'd break the camera. Was it a family reunion? Inbreeding might explain why they were all so ugly.

It didn't help that Vince was making these comments out loud. The men fought with an angry vigor.

As a fist came flying in towards his head, Vince ducked and reciprocated the blow, sending his own fist hard into his attacker's stomach. An unexpected kick from behind caught him off guard, and though he couldn't feel the pain, the gut-wrenching crack that his ribs had made told him they were broken.

The blond-haired boy flipped himself over quickly, and saw his attacker grinning- the jackass who had snapped his ribs seemed to think that he was down for the count. Like something as insignificant as a couple broken bones could really keep him down.

Vince really enjoyed the feeling of sinking his fist into that smug bastard's teeth.

"Mia!" he called as he dodged an incoming punch. "I think my ribs are broken!"

Clapping her hands in preparation, Mia back-flipped herself up, activating a transmutation while her hands were on the ground and her feet in the air. A thin wall flew out of the ground, sending her attackers flying upward before they toppled down, lying scattered on the ground. "That's great, Vince," the alchemist called sarcastically as she landed on her feet and the men around her began to pick themselves up again. "Maybe, if we're lucky, one of them will break your skull, too!" A man ran towards her and tried to swing a punch, but she ducked and punched him firmly in the ribcage. Though she couldn't see through her grey eye, she felt a soul approaching her quickly from the left, so she clapped her hands again and lifted a metal staff from the pavement. With only seconds to spare, she swung the staff and smacked the man firmly across the back. She noted in passing that he was gripping a knife, but didn't have time to consider it, since she had to duck to avoid another punch to the head. Using her staff, she swiped out her attacker's feet, sending him flying into another man behind him.

Vince snorted at his sister's comment before taking one man's skull and smashing it into another's. "Very funny, sis! Too bad they won't be lucky enough to actually hurt me, right?" He dodged towards the right, sticking out his leg so that the man trying to punch him tripped and stumbled onto the pavement.

Gritting her teeth, Mia bit back an angry retort. How much stupider could her brother get? The fact that he couldn't feel pain was supposed to be a secret. Did he not know what a secret was? Channeling her angry energy, she delivered a particularly forceful punch into one of the incoming enemies.

Vince watched his sister fight and cringed as the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. But he had, and now, his sister's attitude had shifted from angry to enraged.

In this moment of distraction, Vince had hardly noticed the man approaching on his right. He turned to face the incoming attacker, and was shocked at how close he had let the man get. By the time he had a chance to react, it was too late.

He felt the knife slide deep into his chest, the metal firm against his flesh, traveling towards his organs. He felt the handle press against his skin, and the blade claw against his rib cage.

His breath caught.

He felt his heart stop beating.

Confusion and fear mixed upon his face, Vince slowly retracted the knife, lifting it to eye level and watching the blood drip off of it slowly. He felt the blood slowly ooze from his chest.

His initial confusion was reflected on his attacker's face, and then increased tenfold when the teen grinned devilishly and punched the man in the face.

"Hey Mia, I think-" he called, but before he could finish what he was about to say, he was cut off.

By a gunshot.

Shocked, Mia stopped mid-punch. Fortunately for her, the man she was fighting stopped too.

A young boy, no older than Vince himself, stepped forward, a pistol in hand and a rifle very clearly strapped to his back. His hair was dark and uncombed, and while his pants were a pair of baggy sleep-pants, his shirt was a well-pressed button up.

"Enough." His tone was dark and his eyes were darker, and without so much as a second thought, he took his gun and pointed it towards one of the eleven men left standing. "Call them off."

The man's voice was unusually deep and thick with an accent when he replied, "What, me? Why do you think I can stop them? They do not follow me."

The boy narrowed his eyes and cocked the gun. "Bullshit," he muttered. "Call them off, or you die right here."

With a guarded expression, the man called out in a language that neither of the Elrics recognized, and the men began lifting their injured comrades from the road.

Once all the other men had left, the dark haired boy nodded his head towards their leader and said "Go," with a voice as cold as ice. His captive glared, but slowly walked away.

Clutching his bleeding chest, Vince grinned triumphantly. "Hey, thanks man!" he called to the kid. As Mia tried to brush the dirt and gore off of herself, her brother approached their savior and offered him a bloody hand.

The boy eyed the hand distastefully and pulled his lips tight. Disregarding Vince's extended hand, he holstered his gun. Then, with hard eyes, he spit out, "You're an idiot."

Vince's hand flopped to his side, and he blinked in surprise. "What?" By then, Amelia had made her way towards them.

"You heard me." The other teen raised an eyebrow. "But I can repeat myself, if it was too difficult for you to understand the first time. You're an idiot." He turned to Mia. "You too."

"Hey," the girl cried, indignant. "This isn't my fault- Vince is the one who started the fight."

Vince glared, feeling his anger bubble up again. "Listen, asshole, this didn't involve you. If we're so fucking stupid, then why'd you get involved? We didn't ask for your help."

"Ohhhh, no, you didn't ask for my help!" the boy cried, tossing his hands in the air dramatically. "But what was I supposed to do, let a couple of reckless brats get murdered in front of my house? You didn't **_have_** to ask for my help." The boy sneered. "Your uselessness was screaming for it from miles away."

"Why I ought t-" As Vince pulled the hand the wasn't clutching his bloody chest back into a fist, he felt his sister step forward and block his aim. "Mia!" he cried in frustration.

"We're very sorry to have bothered you," the girl muttered bitterly. "We'll be on our way now." She turned to her brother. "Come on, Vince. Let's get you fixed up."

As she began walking away, Vince called after her, "But Amelia!" A pout settling on his lips, he turned back towards the boy. Murmuring with a haunting cynicism, he snarled, "If I ever see you again, I'll break your jaw." Then he followed his sister off into the night.

Rubbing his eyes tiredly, the dark-haired boy looked up towards the moon. With a soft groan, he turned and tiredly shuffled back towards his home. "What a couple of morons."

Amelia felt it when her brother's soul caught up to her, and moments later she heard his footsteps behind her, but she didn't slow her pace. She bit her cheeks in frustration.

Slightly unnerved by his sister's silence, Vince tried to put some lightness into his tone. "So, Mia, I think tha-"

"No, Vince, you don't think!" She turned on him, fists curled. "You didn't think, and we ended up in the most ridiculous situation I think I've ever been in." Her brother tried to open his mouth to speak, but she refused to let him get a word in edgewise. "Hell, I'm not saying you had to apologize to the man, though it would have been the easiest thing to do. But for the love of all things good, why in the world did you go and insult him?!" Vince opened his mouth again, but she continued, her voice rising into a shout. "Are you trying to pick fights, Vince? Are you trying to get us killed?!"

The older brother reached out his free hand, placing it firmly over his sister's mouth. Her eyes flared deep with anger, but before she had time to react, he shouted, "Geez, Mia, that's what I've been trying to tell you!" Removing the other hand from the bloody hole in his chest, he grimaced and said, "I don't think I can be killed."

Her anger lost in an instant, the sister gasped and stared wide-eyed at the hole in the center of her brother's chest. "My heart's not beating." His voice was softer than the night-time breeze.

Swallowing hard, Mia clenched her fists and tried to focus. She needed to think. She needed a solution- now.

The proper transmutation flitted into her mind. With a shuttering breath, she clapped her hands together and healed the gory mess in front of her. Vince exhaled hard and fought the urge to claw at his chest- just because the pain was gone didn't mean he could feel the unbearable, tingling itch that came with the rebuilding of flesh. It was like tiny pin pricks, extending deep within his body.

When the feeling finally stopped, the boy shuttered and looked at his sister. A determined expression was on her face, and she wordlessly grabbed his arm and felt for a pulse. There was none. With a tired sigh, she clapped her hands again and sent an electric pulse directly into her brother's chest.

Startled, Vince nearly fell over when he felt the energy pulse once within him. Then, with a gasp, he felt his heart begin to thud soundly within his chest. He grinned at his sister. "Cool."

Mia shook her head, her eyes dropping in their sockets. She was drained- physically and emotionally. "I'm going to bed, Vince." Her voice nearly inaudible, she added, "I'm too tired for this right now. I can't handle it. We'll talk in the morning."

Vince nodded solemnly and walked in silence by his sister's side back to Gracia's house. When Amelia entered the building, he stayed outside on the porch. He wasn't tired- couldn't be tired- and the cool of the night air didn't bother him any. He'd wait until his sister fell asleep before he went back in the house. Her message had been clear.

She wanted to be alone.

* * *

**Was it what you were expecting? )**

**Let me know what you thought!**


	14. Chapter 14

**GUUUUUUUH.**

**I promised a chapter by Monday, and god damnit, I will post a chapter on Monday.**

**So take it. Take it like you take everything else from me. Take until I'm hollow, and then take some more.**

**But seriously, enjoy ;)**

**PS: There's a little game at the end of the chapter. Look for it.**

* * *

CHAPTER 14

"Get down!"

"What?"

Her heart beat pounded so hard that it echoed in her ears, and when she slammed her hands together, the force that reverberated up her arms was so strong that her whole body was shaking. The clap activated her alchemy, and Amelia used her back to shove her brother into a near-by doorway right as she began sealing the entrance off, making it appear as though there had not been a door there to begin with. Her clenched fists ached as she pressed them into the wall she had just created, and no breathe escaped her, out of fear of being heard by the men on the other side.

This was hardly what she'd expected today to come to.

Sure, she'd expected a fight, but not like this. She'd expected to fight her brother, not these strangers.

When the girl had awoken that morning, she'd found Vince's bloody shirt crumpled in the corner of Elicia's bedroom. His blankets looked unchanged, which was a sure indicator that he hadn't gone to sleep that night. If Mia had been willing to talk to him, she'd have scolded him for neglecting his circadian rhythm.

But as it was, she wasn't willing to talk. She was still mad.

At least, that's what she told herself.

It was easier to get frustrated and storm off than admit that she didn't know what was wrong and face the problem. It was easier to be angry and refuse to talk, then to be scared and not know what to say.

She swallowed hard and pushed the thought away. Stupid Vince. Always picking a fight. Always causing trouble. This was his fault.

After they'd dressed and eaten, both the Elric and the Hughes families made their way to the Ceremony Grounds. It hours before the actual inauguration was scheduled to begin. Everyone was dressed in their nicest suits and dresses, and while these weren't the coziest outfits to spend all day in, the clothing wasn't what made the trip uncomfortable.

The silence was stifling.

The adults were trying to hold a conversation, but it was clear that their attempts were in vain. Vincent could feel the irritation rolling off of his sister in waves, and he knew that he wasn't the only one who had noticed. Fortunately, no one asked any questions. It seemed that they all assumed the girl's cross attitude was caused by the dress that she'd been forced into. It wasn't that Amelia minded wearing dresses- to the contrary; she often enjoyed them more than pants. It was just this particular dress she despised. The alchemist had whined and moaned and very nearly cried when her mother had helped lace up the back of it this morning. The fabric was dense and cumbersome, the skirt was thick, and the poor girl could barely breathe, since the corset back needed to be laced up tighter than it was designed to be, in order to keep the whole thing from slipping off of her slim frame.

If she hadn't already wanted to kill him, Vince would have mocked her, because then, at the very least, she'd have had something to vent her frustration at. Perhaps she wouldn't have felt so miserable.

As the family entered Central Command's gateway and made their way towards the Ceremony Grounds, Vince contemplated what exactly he could say to Amelia to get her to talk to him again, but keep her from exploding in public. It was quite the dilemma, but they hadn't spoken about his injury, and, to be honest…

He was scared.

But Vince had never been one for tact. How could he get her to talk to him?

Oh well. Straight forward was probably the best tactic anyways.

"Mia?" The girl turned frosty eyes towards her brother. "Can we talk for a minute?"

Amelia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "I don't want to."

"Mia."

"What?"

"Please."

He sounded so desperate.

In her shock, words escaped her. "I…" Biting her lip, Mia shuffled her feet against the black pavement. "Alright." Each foot step echoed in her ears as the two headed towards the grass alongside the road. She hadn't even considered how Vincent would be feeling in this situation. It had been her first and only assumption that her brother would think nothing of it and blow it off as unimportant.

She'd been selfish to assume that she was the only one who was scared.

"Don't wander too far!" Ed called as the rest of the family continued towards the auditorium where the ceremony would be held. "We're in the fourth row. Don't take too long."

Startled, Amelia looked towards her father. "Uh, right."

"They noticed something was wrong, Mia." Vince said with a smirk, the fear gone from him in an instant. "They probably figured I'm going to beat some sense into you."

Her eyes turned cold again. "I'm still upset with you, ya know."

This coerced a shrug from the older boy, and he trudged through the damp morning grass towards the side of the auditorium. "What are you gonna do about it? Disown me?" The smirk pulled farther up his face. "Fight me?"

"No."

"Why not? You're angry, right? Don't you want to knock some sense into me?"

Her vision flashed red. "Not everything is a fight, Vince!" Her voice trembled in an angry whisper. "Why can't you seem to understand that!? It's always been this way with you- you fight me, you fight teachers, you fight your friends, you fight your classmates. Hell, Vince, now you're fighting strangers! Not everything can be solved with fists and grit, Vince!" The taste of blood filled her mouth as she bit the insides of her cheeks. The pain caused her to calm down, as if she was pinching herself back into reality. "Sometimes a soft word will get you twice as far." Vince opened his mouth to defend himself, but Amelia cut him off with a soft shout. "No, Vince. It's like you never learn. And now look at the mess you've gotten us in!"

"I didn't cause this Amelia!" His voice was deep with anger, and the fire that burned in his tone was so fierce that it caused his sister to flinch. "With or without this fight – with or without the stabbing and the bleeding and what should have been me **_dying_** - I'd still have been some sort of monster." His voice dropped to a soft murmur. "The only difference is that now, we know about it."

The weight of her youth and ignorance hit her, and Mia had to stop walking and lean against the auditorium wall.

He was right. She couldn't take it.

When his sister's knees gave out, Vince released a shaky sigh. As he watched her crumple to the damp ground and sob like a child, he felt a type of exhaustion that he hadn't for years. "Come on now." He knelt next to her and tucked his knees under his chin. "I didn't mean to sound so upset." With a lightness in his tone that only Vince would be able to fake, he chuckled out, "It's not like it's a big deal or anything."

"N-not a bi-big deal?" Mia hiccupped out between watery gasps. "Vince, I h-have no idea what's wrong. I have n-no idea h-how t-t-to fix it."

Fear clutched tighter around his heart, but he hid it from his face. She didn't know what was wrong, then. Damn, that was terrifying. But there was no need for both of them to be frightened. Plastering on a fake smile, Vince forced a laugh and asked, "Why fix it?"

"A-aren't you scared?"

"Naaah." The cockiness returned to the boy's voice. "I've lived this way for three years and nothing bad has come from it, right? It's probably fine."

"What if- if they're some sort of side effect? Something we d-don't know about."

He pushed a couple tears off his sister's face. "Then we'll deal with it when it happens."

"Aren't you scared? Even a little?"

"Nope," he lied with a smug grin. "Now come on. Well, if you don't know what's going on, then it's probably best that we get back to Mom and Dad before the ceremony begins."

Mia pushed herself up slowly and wrinkled her nose. "You're really not worried? Don't lie to me, Vince."

"Would I do that?"

Would he? Probably.

"Answer me, Vincent."

The boy threw his hands up. "I'm not worried. Sheesh." He turned fast on his heels. "Now hurry up already."

Amelia rubbed her eyes and then glanced down at herself. Her dress was spattered with splotches of mud and grass. "The ceremony isn't for a few more hours, right?" She spread her arms out helplessly. "Can't we stop by a bathroom, so I can get cleaned up first?"

A response of "Sure," was followed by an irritated sigh.

After squeezing their way inside through a side door and locating a bathroom, Mia washed her dress in a sink before using alchemy to evaporate the water from the cloth. Clean and dry, the girl darted back into the hallway where her brother was waiting.

"So, which way is the quickest to the event hall?" Vince eyed the hallway mischievously. The inside of the auditorium was larger than he had expected. There was a lot here that they could explore.

"Vince, come on, don't be stupid. Let's just go back the way we came. It's easier."

"What, are you telling me you don't want to try looking around? It'll be fun."

Amelia's expression was not amused.

Vince rolled his eyes. "Fine, have it your way." Begrudgingly, the boy turned and began to stomp down the hallway, back from where they came.

Mia smiled softly and began to follow, but her foot stopped mid-air, half step.

A familiar feeling crawled at the back of her neck. And then another. Followed by one she didn't recognize, but then another she did.

"Hey! You kids!"

Without missing a beat, Mia grabbed her brother by the arm hard and took off in a sprint. "Run!"

"Get back here!" There were more of them now.

Yanking the older boy around a sharp corner, the girl shoved him into an open doorway. "Get down!"

"What?"

Sealing the door with alchemy, Mia squeezed her eyes shut, silently waiting and listening as files of men stormed past her makeshift door.

"Amelia!" Grabbing her shoulder roughly, Vince whispered, "What is going on?"

"It's those men from last night. They're here."

An unexpected voice cause both Elrics to jump. "Of course they're here. The real question is- why are you?"

Spinning suddenly, Amelia forced herself not a release a fearful squeak as she made eye contact with the room's other occupant.

The dim bulb dangling from the ceiling provided just enough light to expose his identity. Lounging casually in a rustic wooden chair, a humorless smile playing at his lips, the boy with the dark hair narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well? Explain yourselves." The smile fell from his face. "And it had better be good."

* * *

**Alright , game time!**

**Tell me, dear readers:**

**Who do you think this mysterious boy is?**

**If you can figure out who he is, you can have an internet cookie. (Hint: I don't think it's that hard to guess right.)**

**If you can figure out what his name is (first or last) then I'll dedicate the next chapter to you. You don't have to get both halves of the name right, either the first or the last.**

**Good luck! Let me know what you think of this past chapter, and of my little game!**


End file.
